Several local residents have recently shared encounters with a particularly sophisticated form of online scam, in which fraudulent messages appear to come from the real email accounts of clients, customers, or business contacts they regularly deal with, making them extremely difficult to recognize as scams.

Unlike traditional scam emails from unknown senders or suspicious-looking addresses, these messages can arrive from an email account the recipient already knows and trusts. The sender may be a client or business associate with whom the recipient has communicated many times before, leaving little reason to suspect that anything is wrong.

The fraudulent email may include a document or link that appears entirely consistent with the type of correspondence normally exchanged between the two parties. Because both the email address and the person behind it are familiar, recipients can easily assume the message is legitimate and open the attachment without a second thought.

Opening a harmful document or following its instructions can expose passwords, business information, financial accounts, or other sensitive data. In some cases, victims may not immediately realize that anything has gone wrong.

People and businesses are urged to be especially cautious with documents they did not request, even when they appear to come from a legitimate email address belonging to someone they know and regularly communicate with. If something seems unusual, recipients should contact the other party through a trusted method, such as a known phone number, to confirm that the document is legitimate, or consult with a business cybersecurity expert.

With scammers increasingly able to make fraudulent messages appear as though they are coming from trusted contacts, the old rule of simply watching for poorly written emails, unfamiliar senders, or obviously suspicious addresses may no longer be enough. Taking an extra moment to verify an unexpected document, or checking with a cybersecurity professional when in doubt, can prevent a seemingly routine business email from turning into a costly scam.