Doña Ana County has been made aware of scam emails sent to various constituents recently. Although the messages did not come from the county, the “From” address mimicked a Doña Ana County address.
“Please know that it is very easy for scammers to send emails with false “From” addresses,’ said Doña Ana County IT Director Bob Bunting. “Therefore, you should never trust any email solely based on the “From” address.
Bunting said he recommends that anyone who received unsolicited or unexpected emails purporting to be from Doña Ana County to take some basic precautions, and he said you can take these steps to check whether it is part of a scam:
- If the message refers you to a web address that does not begin with https://www.donaanacounty.org or https://donaanacounty.org, it is a scam.
- The county will not request personal information from you by email. If you receive a message asking for personal information, it is a scam.
- If the message is threatening or intimidating (e.g., “Immediate action required or your property will be forfeited”), it is not from the county.
- Scam messages often originate from foreign countries. In those case, the messages frequently exhibit poor English grammar and spelling. Such messages are likely to be scams.
- You can always call the County and ask to speak with the person or department the email claims to come from. Our main number is (575) 647-7200. You can find phone numbers for individual departments on our web site by selecting Departments and then selecting the department you wish to contact.
- If an email is suspicious, do not open any attachments sent with it. Attachments can contain viruses and other types of malware that can harm your computer and/or steal your information.