Atlantic Philanthropies Is the Latest Nonprofit Subject to Email 'Phishing' Attacks

On Oct. 29, an email claiming it was from Christopher Oechsli, president of Atlantic Philanthropies, said the New York foundation was planning to give away $1 million randomly. In reality, the foundation was victim of a phishing attack, a criminal attempt to use an established brand name to lure Internet users into providing personal information like Social Security or bank-account numbers. In the past 18 months, the foundation has dealt with seven such attacks.