Maplewood Warns Residents About Spam From Township Email Accounts

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The Township of Maplewood warned residents and vendors that last week, malicious files were located on the township's email system. Spammers were able to use the files to exploit township emails and address books, including all internal and external contacts, in order to send phishing links.

The township sent out this message:

The Township's IT team has been working diligently to address the issue and is able to report that there are no longer any malicious files located on the township system.

However, spammers are now using the same data to send out spoof emails. These emails appear to come from township email accounts in response to existing message threads. While closer inspection reveals that these emails are being sent from accounts not associated with the township, the fact that they are being sent in response to legitimate communications makes it challenging for users to identify the phishing attempts before clicking on any links or attachments.

Unfortunately, because both the senders and recipients of this new round of phishing emails are outside of the township's domain, our IT team is unable to address the issue any further.

For this reason, anyone receiving an email that appears to be from township employees is advised to be cautious and follow instructions linked here.

Thank you all once again for your patience and understanding as we have worked to address this issue.

This press release was produced by the Maplewood Township. The views expressed here are the author’s own.