Texas Education Agency Warns Teachers, School Systems About Phishing Scam

AUSTIN, TX — The Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE) on Thursday issued a warning about a phishing email scam directed at teachers and school systems across the state.

The email, which bears the ATPE logo and an outdated TEA logo, comes from a non-TEA email address and appears to target teachers with the following message:

“You are invited to represent your school and district in a three day all-expense paid seminar and training workshop taking place in Austin,TX, it is being put together by the Association of Texas Professional Educators and Texas Education Agency. Kindly go through the included seminar invitation for details and registration.”

Two links are provided to supply information for seminar registration. Clicking on either of these links is not advised.

"Neither TEA nor ATPE have any connection with this email nor is any such joint training seminar currently scheduled by our organizations," officials wrote in their warning. "The contact name and phone number provided in the email are not associated with either organization."

ATPE has alerted its members to the scam, officials said. Additionally, both agencies have issued warnings to all educators and school systems about the phishing attempt, advising anyone who receives it to delete it without following any of the included links.

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