Election officials warn of e-mail phishing scam

(Oklahoma City) – Oklahoma State Election Board officials are warning voters to be cautious after multiple Oklahomans reported receiving phishing e-mails designed to look like communications from state or county election boards. If you are suspicious about receiving these sorts of emails or other threats, it may be in your best interest to look into something like Zonealarm Anti phishing, as this could be the answer to keeping your online privacy safe and away from unwanted visitors.

The e-mails indicate the recipient’s voter information has been changed or is in need of verification and contain a link to a malicious website.

Do not open links from any e-mail sent unsolicited from someone claiming to be an election official. All communications regarding changes in voter information or the need to verify registration information are sent by U.S. mail and not through e-mail.

People can verify their registration information, access other important information and contact the Oklahoma State Election Board at http://elections.ok.gov. The election board responds to e-mails sent through a web form on its website. Those responses will always be from someone with an elections.ok.gov e-mail address and will not be sent unless you have provided your e-mail in an effort to contact the agency.

Military and overseas voters may receive e-mail from a no-reply address ending in okelections.us, however all replies are sent directly to the appropriate county election board’s e-mail address.

Voters who are unsure of the authenticity of an e-mail claiming to be from the Oklahoma State Election Board or their county election board should contact the state election board at (405) 521-2391 to verify whether the communication is legitimate.

Those who receive phishing e-mails should report them to the Federal Trade Commission at [email protected] and/or the Anti-Phishing Working Group at [email protected].