Government email alert system GovDelivery used to send scam messages

An email notification system used by U.S. federal and state government departments to alert residents to important information, has been used to send scam emails, TechCrunch has learned. The U.S. state of Indiana said Tuesday that it is “aware of fraudulent messages purportedly sent by state agencies” to residents about unpaid tolls. TechCrunch has seen one email message sent from an Indiana government department that claimed the recipient had an outstanding toll balance, and contained a disguised link that redirected to a malicious site. A statement from the Indiana Office of Technology said it was “working with the company that was used to deliver those messages to stop any further communication.” Indiana said a contractor’s account was hacked and used to send the scam messages. The state said it was not aware of “any current state systems” being compromised, but did not rule out an earlier breach. The statement said that the contract with the unspecified company, which TechCrunc ... Read full article.