How to Tell If an Email Claiming to Be From IBE Is a Phishing Scam

Updated

The IBE website carries an explicit warning: fraudulent emails have been sent that claim to come from a member of the IBE Executive Committee. Those emails are not from IBE and have nothing to do with the organisation. If you receive an uninvited message that appears to be from an IBE officer, treat it as suspicious until you have verified it through an independent channel — not by replying to the message itself.

What IBE Has Said About the Scam

The warning on ibe-epilepsy.org describes phishing as a scam in which fraudulent emails are sent to trick people into revealing personal or financial information. IBE notes that there appears to have been an increase in such emails targeting non-profit organisations, including patient associations, and that it was notified of a number of emails claiming to have been sent by a member of its Executive Committee. IBE states plainly that these emails are fraudulent.

That gives you one concrete, checkable fact: IBE does not treat unexpected emails purporting to come from its Executive Committee as legitimate. A message that leans on an IBE officer's name or title to get you to act is the exact pattern the organisation has flagged.

Warning Signs to Look For

Phishing works by borrowing trust. The IBE case shows the usual mechanics, and you can check a suspicious email against them:

  • Uninvited contact. You did not start the conversation, yet the sender writes as if you have an existing relationship or obligation.
  • Authority borrowed from a name. The message claims to come from a named IBE Executive Committee member or similar official, often to pressure you into responding quickly.
  • A request for information or action. The goal is to get you to reveal personal or financial details, or to click through and enter them.
  • A reply path that stays inside the scam. The return address or instructions keep you corresponding with the sender rather than checking with IBE independently.

IBE's own guidance is broader than email: when dealing with uninvited contacts from people or businesses — by phone, mail, email, in person or on a social networking site — always consider the possibility that the approach may be a scam.

How to Verify a Suspicious Message

  1. Do not reply, and do not use contact details from the email. Replying confirms your address is live, and any link or phone number in the message may belong to the sender.
  2. Stop before sharing anything. Do not send personal or financial information, and do not open attachments from an unverified sender.
  3. Contact IBE through its website. Go to ibe-epilepsy.org directly rather than through the email, and use the contact route published there to ask whether the message is genuine.
  4. Check with your own organisation. If the email references a patient association or similar body, ask its leadership whether anyone knows about the approach.
  5. Report it. Tell IBE about the message so it can warn others, and report it through your email provider's phishing reporting function.

The expected result of step 3 is a yes-or-no answer from IBE itself. Until you have that, treat the message as fraudulent.

What to Do If You Already Responded

If you have already replied or shared information, act on the assumption that the details are exposed: change any passwords you disclosed or that were guessable from what you sent, and alert your bank if financial details were involved. Then notify IBE and your organisation so others can be warned. IBE's site points readers to its fuller scam guidance, which is worth reading before you handle further uninvited contacts.

Why This Matters for Patient Associations

IBE describes itself as an organisation of laypersons and professionals interested in the non-medical aspects of epilepsy, and its network includes patient associations — the very groups its warning says are being targeted. A convincing fake from a named committee member can pressure a small association into acting fast. The defence is procedural rather than technical: verify through the official website, never through the message, and treat uninvited contact as suspect by default.