Fraud Alert

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General has issued a fraud alert due to an increase in a new and widespread phishing scam. In this scam, a fake Notice of Violation is sent to a business from what appears to be the EPA. Recently, these notices have been delivered through email or the U.S. Postal Service mail and state that the business owes thousands of dollars in fines. It then provides a phone number and email address for correspondence. WARNING: This contact information is NOT associated with the EPA, so DO NOT correspond with them. 

If you receive a notice, here are some things you can do to ensure it’s authenticity:

1. Check if and when you had an EPA inspection. The US EPA will never send a Notice of Violation without performing an inspection ahead of time. If your facility has never had a prior inspection, the Notice of Violation is definitely fraudulent.
2. Double check the email address. In many recent cases, the email address listed is invoice @ epa . services. This is NOT an EPA email address. Any email correspondence coming from any federal agency will end in .gov. If the email address listed does not end in .gov, the Notice of Violation is definitely fraudulent.
3. Contact the EPA. If you have looked through the letter and checked the email address but still feel like it might be fraudulent, contact the EPA's enforcement office directly to verify its authenticity. 

The best way to avoid getting caught up in this scam is to ensure that you are in compliance with any applicable EPA regulation. The Iowa Waste Reduction Center is here to help your small business or organization with your environmental needs. Reach out to one of our specialists and we can walk you through everything you need to do to be in compliance. Contact us at iwrc@uni.edu or 319-273-8905.

Authors: Joe Bolick (Director) and Jennifer Wittenburg (Program Manager), Iowa Waste Reduction Center, University of Northern Iowa