RFP Phishing Scams

Phishing scams are part of daily life when using the internet.  We have begun to see a scam that the example below illustrates.  Basically, the scam works like this.  You receive an official-looking email from what looks like a real government official.  In the email, you are asked to review the attached RFP and provide pricing for the items listed.  If you do some investigating you will probably discover that the names used in the RFP are of individuals that work for the agency mentioned.   In the examples of this scam that we have seen, the RFP wants pricing on some hardware items such as laptop computers.  Typically, when you determine a price based upon the quantities provided the total quote will be somewhere in the range of $30-$60 thousand dollars.  We believe that the way the scheme works is that if you were to send the crooks a quote, they would probably reply with an email stating that you submitted the best price.  The next step would be for them to ask you for your bank account information so that they could simply transfer the funds into your account.  Of course, once they have your bank account information, they would simply drain your account of any available funds.

Please be very vigilant.  If you receive any emails and you are unsure of their authenticity, please reach out to your PTAC counselor and seek their advice.  As the old adage goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t!”

Some items to point out in the scam email below.

1. Mr. Billy Fong is an actual employee of the Veterans Administration
2. Note that there are two different email addresses given for Mr. Fong
3. Neither email extension is correct for an employee of the Veterans Administration
4. In the link below: “RFP Scam” you can see a copy of the letter attached to the email below
5. The attached letter is signed by Angela Billups, who is in fact the Executive Director of (OPAL)
6. Someone in the capacity of Angela Billups would never be involved in the purchasing process