The Texas comptroller is warning people about a fraudulent email claiming to come from his office. Glenn Hegar's office sent a notice about a message with the subject line, "Code Violation Notice ref::#3364541.PDF."
"The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts is warning citizens that criminals are sending emails impersonating the agency’s Open Records Division, claiming citizens have committed a code violation. Do not click any links in these communications," Hegar's office wrote in the email which includes a PDF of a sample letter.
"I don't think people are taking it very seriously," says Michael Moore, president of M3 Networks in Southlake. "They're like, 'Ah, it's just a dumb email from the state,' but this is the real deal."
Moore says hackers are becoming more sophisticated as they try to impersonate state agencies. He says they may mimic the comptroller's office to convince people to send them money, or the link could take users to a site where they are told to give information that can be used to steal identities.
"The money you intended to send the comptroller's office, whether it be $10,000 or $10 million, that money is never coming back," Moore says.
While the comptroller's office will try to reach business owners with warnings about topics like delinquent taxes, Moore says recipients have options to protect themselves before opening an email. First, he urges people to hover their cursor over the sender's email address to confirm it came from an address like, "@ service.govdelivery.com" or "cpa.texas.gov."
Moore says recipients should also Google a contact number at the comptroller's office instead of dialing the one listed in an email. He says calling the number listed in the email may simply ring to a call center run by the scammer.
"You can call the comptroller's office and say, 'Did you send me this letter? Did you send me this email?'" he says. "They can verify it's something they sent you. You want to be diligent to make sure you're actually dealing with the comptroller's office."
Moore says hackers are using all technology they can to steal people's information. He says they are becoming "more and more diligent" to accurately pretend to be other people.
He says they might spoof social media accounts and take public pictures to try to do business with banks under another person's name who is already a customer of the bank.
"The rule of thumb is if it's convenient for you, it's convenient for the hacker. If it's difficult for you, it's difficult for the hacker," Moore says. "If all you have to do is send your banker a text to say, 'Send the money to the vendor,' a hacker can spoof they're you, send that same text to the vendor, and send the money to themselves."
He says the same concept applies in email, so Moore urges people to use complex passwords and two-factor authentication.
Now, Moore says scammers may even start using artificial intelligence to replicate someone's voice, call a bank and transfer money.
"I'm no different than anybody else. I want to take a breath," he says. "But the reality is you cannot let your guard down against this wave of attackers who work 24/7/365 to try to do one thing: steal your money."
To combat hackers, Moore says people can try to protect passwords and their accounts. He also urges business owners to get to know the people they do business with and get to know people at the banks they work with.
"You want to set up multiple forms of identification for things like wire transfers," he says. "If I do a wire transfer, it's not just our admin assistant or myself. I want a second form of authentication. I want you to force me to come in to fill out a form. I want you to have a second officer of the company make the phone call because if a bad guy can use AI to replicate your voice, the money's gone. It does irreparable harm to your business reputation as well."
More information about M3 Networks is available here.
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