A fraudulent email sent by a group claiming to be the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources made rounds Tuesday to Triangle news agencies.
The false email contained a press release apologizing for a department draft report that stated hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of natural gas extraction, could be safely implemented in North Carolina with proper regulations.
Lisa Sorg, editor at the Independent Weekly, received the email and was the first media person to contact the agency.
She said she was immediately suspicious.
“What alerted me the first time that the email was fraudulent was that the email didn’t include Secretary Dee Freeman’s name,” she said.
“The second was that this didn’t seem like something Freeman would have done. I have been doing this for 17 years, and I just knew something didn’t smell right.”
Sorg explained press releases typically contain a signature and contact number.
“This email had no contact information whatsoever,” she said.
Sorg attempted to trace the source of the email but couldn’t.
