Victim Location 80001
Type of a scam Phishing
Our office was alerted via phone by a gentleman in Colorado who had received an email from a person claiming to be with the Garland Chamber of Commerce, which is our organization. He was contacted via an email address from garlandchamber.net, which is not our website. He, being nowhere near Garland, thought the contact to be strange, and when he did a Google search, noticed two websites for the Garland Chamber, one ours (.com) and the other, which is fraudulent (.net) We looked up the site and found that a majority of the content and some images had been lifted from our website, including our strategic plan goals, staff member quotes and our annual magazine cover photo. We don’t know the content of the email or the scope of the scam, but we do know the website is fraudulent and contains plagiarized content.
Victim Location 75040
Type of a scam Phishing
Over the weekend, a Garland business left a voicemail with us saying a woman had called her every couple of months claiming to be with the Garland Chamber of Commerce and asking questions about the status of their lease, whether they were looking for a new location, how many employees they had, etc. I spoke with her earlier today and she told me that this past week, when the woman called, the Garland business employee didn’t have time to talk and simply said there was no change in the information. The woman (again claiming to be with the Garland Chamber) argued with her and said she had to answer the questions. It was then that the Garland business employee called us directly to confirm whether that was accurate. It is not. The Garland Chamber does not demand that local business owners provide us with any information. The woman spoke with an oriental accent and seemed to be in a call center, with multiple audible voices in the background.
After a quick Google search of the number, it’s obvious that this is not an isolated case. I found multiple complaints of the same phone number claiming to be with other local Chambers throughout the country. The phone number is (888) 001-0816. The Garland Chamber does not use call centers, and again, does not demand information from businesses.