AAFCPAs Recommends Common Sense Precautions After Spoofed Email

AAFCPAs was recently informed that one of its email accounts had been spoofed, i.e., an outside party impersonated the company while sending spam. Consequently, some individuals may have received an email that appeared authentic but contained inappropriate or spam-like content or promoted products or services that we do not sell. We want to assure you that this email did not originate from AAFCPAs and that no internal contact lists, business data, or client data were compromised. While a company does not have control over e-mail spoofing, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused.

AAFCPAs has stringent data protection policies and procedures in place to safeguard your confidential information. As standard practice, we will never request sensitive business or personal data by email or text, nor will we contact you to request donations or sell commodities.

AAFCPAs reminds clients to remain vigilant against spoofed emails and phishing scams. Phishing attempts often arrive in the form of an email or text message that may look as if it came from a company or individual you already know and trust. They often include a sense of urgency and may ask for confidential information, such as a password or business bank account. Please be on the lookout for this along with any misspellings or abnormal spacing, which are common red flags.

AAFCPAs would like to remind clients to delete suspicious emails regardless of the subject line or sender. Additionally, please do not reply to, click URLs in, provide personal or confidential information to, or open attachments within a suspicious email. If you use our Client Portal, please access this through a secure web browser by typing the URL as opposed to following a link. If in doubt, please give us a call at 508.366.9100.

If you believe you are a victim of identity theft stemming from a phishing scam, please visit IdentityTheft.gov to report the issue and to learn safe means for recovery. The FTC’s consumer information site is another good resource that offers tips to help you protect yourself.

Ultimately, the best line of defense in protecting you, your business, and your family from risk is to remain vigilant and understand your vulnerabilities.