ALS Association Warns Against Potential Email Fraud

Recently, we became aware of a “phishing” scam related to the Ice Bucket Challenge and posted this information to our website and to social media. This scam involves unknown individuals sending fraudulent emails utilizing text and images from The ALS Association in an attempt to gather recipients’ personal information.

Although we have notified the proper authorities about this, it appears that scammers are sending separate emails to people around the globe randomly who may have not donated to the ALS cause using a real “Thank You” email from our organization while incorporating an attachment in the correspondence labeled “receipt.doc.” The Cyber Security firm Barracuda Network states that when people click on the attachment, it releases malware, or software that can damage a computer, onto unsuspecting individuals’ desktops and laptops, which can access sensitive and personal information. Such correspondence will not contain a sender email address accompanied by “@alsa.org.”