SMPD COMMUNITY Alert!! Child Predator Email Scam – DON’T CLICK ON IT – Here’s Why:
COMMUNITY ALERT
FROM THE CITY of SAN MATEO POLICE DEPARTMENT
Your police officers have received report of a fraudulent email that is unfortunately making its way to some of your inboxes. The email is not only fake, but dangerous and under no circumstances should you click on the link. This is a “phishing” email, which means it will install software on your computer (malware) that seeks to search your computer for stored log in information, passwords, even credit card numbers. It reads the following:
Neighorhood Safety Info.
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**MESSAGE ID No.2218628754
THIS IS AN AUTOMATED REPLY
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The reason that we’re reaching out to you today is to inform you that a child-predator
has just moved into your area. (This information was based on your local zipcode). Whenever a registered-child-offender
moves into a new neighborhood, this information goes public.
Go below here right away to learn all you can about this child-predator
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This email is not authentic, nor would you ever receive any such notification from either the San Mateo Department nor from Megan’s Law. This unfortunately demonstrates the extent to which people will go to try and seize your personal information. This is just one of many phishing emails you may see in your inbox and thus, it’s always important to use caution before clicking on a link. Here’s a few tips to protect the security of your email and your computer:
• Beware of spam! Be wary of emails that come from unrecognized senders, or ask you to confirm personal or financial information, aren’t personalized to you, or seem to be written in a manner designed to upset you or even threaten you.
• “Look for the S”. When conducting online transactions look to see that the website begins with https://, which indicates a secure site.
• Do it by phone! Never email personal or financial information, even to a known recipient. A phishing email opened by them will seize YOUR information.
• Protect your computer with a firewall, anti-virus, and malware detector. One that is free and highly recommended can be found at https://www.malwarebytes.org/
• When in doubt, do a little research: snopes.com or scamdex.com are great websites to research whether an email is already reported to be a scam.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON AUTHENTIC CALIFORNIA MEGAN’S LAW COMMUNICATION
http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/
DO YOUR PART TO MAKE OUR NEIGHBORHOODS SAFER
As always, we count on our community members to be SMPD’s “extra eyes and ears.” Please report ANY suspicious activity to SMPD right away via 911, or 650-522-7700. For information related to any ongoing SMPD investigation, call the Detective Bureau at 650-522-7650. You may also contact us anonymously by voicemail 650-522-7676 or text message 650-262-3473.
Address/Location
San Mateo, CA Police Department
200 Franklin Pkwy
San Mateo, CA 94403
Contact
Emergency: 9-1-1
Non-emergencies: 650-522-7700
TEXT-A-TIP - Text TIP SANMATEOPD followed by your message, to 888777