Email Scam Targeting Beachwood, East Side Residents

BEACHWOOD, OH — Email scammers have been targeting residents in Cleveland's east side suburbs, the Beachwood Police department warned over the weekend. The most recent ploy to hit the area is a "phishing" scam.

"In these cases the victim may receive an email purporting to be from someone the victim knows. The “bad guys” then ask the victim to take some type of new action, such as sending money to a different bank account than normal," Beachwood Police said on social media.

Here's an easy, hypothetical example to help explain what type of email might be used in these situations.

A resident may get an email invoice that is purportedly from a business partner. That partner may ask the resident to wire money to a different bank account than is regularly used. The resident will do so, thinking they're helping their regular business partner.

Frequently, scammers will use email addresses that are one letter different from someone's normal email address. Once money is transferred via wire, it can be very difficult to recover.