It has come to our attention that at least a few members of PEDA have recently received emails, purported to be from PEDA President Mike Grigalonis, requesting gift card codes or donations. Although these emails may appear to be legitimate, they are a scam.  

It appears the sender of these emails harvested information from the public-facing Board of Directors page of PEDA's website and then used it to create fake email accounts that appear to be associated with Mike. In some cases, the email addresses had no apparent connection to Mike or his organization while, in others, the email address used referenced his name, but used a random domain (i.e., not @ccedcpa.com). To the best of our knowledge, the only recipients of these emails were Board members whose contact information was listed on the same public-facing page. With this said, other public-facing pages of the website - which could be targeted in the same way - include those with contact information for PEDA committee chairs and staff. 

While some scam emails may be apparent, others may be more difficult to identify. There is also a tendency to see an increased incidence of scams during times of crisis. There are numerous online resources that provide guidance for recognizing fraudulent emails. If you receive an unsolicited email or request that you consider suspicious, please exercise caution and ensure the authenticity of the message through other channels.