Darien D61 Victim Of Phishing Scam: Official

DARIEN, IL – Darien School District 61's domain has been used by scammers for a phishing scam, the superintendent confirmed Thursday.

Phishing is where scammers send messages that appear to be from the email addresses of legitimate organizations.

"Our system was not hacked," Superintendent Robert Langman said in an email to Patch on Thursday. "There is an email phishing campaign occurring through Google's servers that is emulating our domain and sending emails. We are working with Google to rectify this issue."

A resident sent an example of a phishing email that appeared to be from District 61. It used the name of one of the district's teachers. The sender asked recipients to view completed documents and sign them. The email is titled "Application-Need Sign."

In an interview Friday, Langman said the problem started last week for his district, which sent a message to families shortly afterward.

"It is happening across the state right now," Langman said. "It's an AI-driven bot. It's getting around a lot of filters."

The district's computer systems have not been compromised, he said.