Loudoun County Sheriff Warns Residents Of Email, Gift Card Scam

ASHBURN, VA — The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is warning local residents to be aware law enforcement officials have received complaints about scams involving attempts to collect money from residents and local businesses.

Sheriff’s Office officials said Wednesday that the complaints involve residents and businesses receiving emails that appear to come from a familiar source such as a supervisor or client. The emails, officials said, are actually from impersonators who use similar addresses to scam an employee of a local company out of money. According to police, the emails being used use slight variations of the actual contact’s email address.

In some cases, the emails appear to come from a supervisor encouraging residents to purchase gift cards to send to employees as a reward or from vendors that local businesses deal with a vendor used by local companies. In such cases, the person requests an invoice with updated address for payment.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office Financial Crimes Unit reminds residents and business owners to carefully examine email addresses, URLs, and spelling used in any correspondence. Local residents should never open an email attachment from someone they do not know and should never click on any links included in an unsolicited email or text.

If any resident of Loudoun County believes they or their company have been a victim of a scam, they should contact the Loudoun County Sheriff’s at (703) 777-1021 or file a report online at http://sheriff.loudoun.gov/reportonline.