Scam alert - phishing Federal SAM entity renewal email

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Hi everyone,

FYI, if your organization has a federal SAM (System for Award Management) number (which you need to apply for grant funding from the federal govt) PLEASE remember to check the return address on any emails that you get telling you that you need to renew.

I just got 2 emails about renewing our SAM this week and they were fairly well-written, no red flags. The subject of the message was "SAM renewal due - Wanaque Public Library." 

The message showed up as possible SPAM, but it looked real enough that I thought I had to do it and was just about to, until I opened my SAM folder and realized we aren't due to renew until later this year.

Please learn from my [almost] being phished, and check the return email address and/or mouse over any links in an email to ensure they're valid (in this case, they should be coming from or pointing at a .gov address)

Have a nice week,

Mary Martin, Wanaque Library
martin [at] wanaquelibrary.org
973-839-4434