Protect yourself and Parks Canada against phishing emails impersonating our PCEO

Hello,

Parks IT Security has been made aware of a scam email that is targeting Parks Canada team members.

The phishing email appears to come from our President & Chief Executive Officer Ron Hallman requesting assistance with a rewards and recognition scheme for employees. If a team member responds to the email, the scammer may follow up, continuing to pose as Ron, asking them to purchase a gift card on his behalf.

If you receive a message like this, ignore it, do not click on links and report it to Parks IT Security.

This is a fraudulent attempt to solicit a response that could result in the theft of sensitive information or financial gain.

Here are some warning signs to help you identify phishing scams like this and protect yourself:

• Look at the sender’s email address, does it seem legitimate?
• Be wary of emails sent to your pc.gc.ca email from @gmail.com addresses. Our PCEO would never send work-related emails from a personal Gmail account.
• The message includes an unusual request or something that doesn’t follow regular procedure.
• The sender asks you to keep their request secret.
• The message contains an urgent request or demands immediate action.
• The email signature is missing crucial information.

To help demonstrate what to look out for, here is an example of one of the phishing emails reported to IT Security:

This is one example of a phishing email recently reported to Parks IT Security. Phishing messages can come in many different disguises, and we have received multiple reports of team members being targeted with variants of this scam.

By learning about malicious emails and phishing attacks, you can help protect and secure our information:

• Here are the 7 biggest red flags you should check for when you receive an email or text.
• Visit the Get Cyber Safe website for more information about phishing emails and other online scams.

If you have any concerns about an email or text message, don't open the message or click the link. Instead contact Parks IT Security.

Let’s continue to work together to keep Parks Canada cyber secure.

Thank you,

Richard Barrette
Chief Information Officer

#CyberMonth2023