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County government warns of phishing emails coming from official account

If you receive an email that looks like this, delete it without opening. (Source: Provided)

Lancaster County government was the target of a phishing scam that led to deceptive emails being sent out from a county email account Thursday morning, officials have confirmed.

Any county residents who received an email with the subject line “County Tax” from a lancastercountypa.gov address should delete it immediately without opening it, county IT officials said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

Several county departments, including the Office of Aging, received a phishing email from a senior living facility, the statement said. Interactions with it resulted in a phishing email being sent out to Lancaster County residents. The county did not say how many recipients it might have gone to.

A version of the fraudulent outgoing email reviewed by One United Lancaster provides a link that supposedly leads to a secure message from “Sheri H Snyder.” It includes a forged signature block that appears genuine, identifying Snyder correctly as an employee of the Office of Aging.

Phishing emails purport to be from legitimate sources and try to trick recipients into clicking on links. If they do, their email accounts and other information on their computers or phones can be compromised.

The county’s IT Department said it has resolved the issue, so no more compromised emails will be sent out; and confirmed that all county government accounts are secured.

“The county’s internal network was never compromised, and all data and information remain secure,” it said.