FYI: Impersonators are (still) targeting companies with fake TechCrunch outreach

Hi, thanks as always for reading TechCrunch. We want to talk with you quickly about something important. A growing number of scammers are impersonating TechCrunch reporters, editors, and event leads and reaching out to companies, pretending to be our staff when they absolutely are not. ( Here is a list of all of our actual staff .) These bad actors are using our name and reputation to try to dupe unsuspecting businesses. It drives us crazy and infuriates us on your behalf. Judging by the increased number of emails we’re receiving, asking, “Does this person really work for you?” it appears to be happening more actively at the moment. Anecdotally, this isn’t just happening to us; fraudsters are exploiting the trust that comes with established news brands to get their foot in the door with companies across the media industry. Here’s an example of the most common scheme we’ve been tracking: Impostors are impersonating our reporters to extract sensitive business information from unsuspecting targets. In several cases we know about, scammers have adopted the identity of actual staff members, crafting what looks like a standard media inquiry about a company’s products and requesting an introductory call. Sharp-eyed recipients sometimes catch discrepancies in email addresses that don’t match our real employees’ credentials (see a list of bogus email addresses below). But more recently, they are hearing from fake reporters who claim to have address conventions that do match our own, making it tricker to recognize a TechCrunch employee from someone else claiming to be one. Indeed, the schemes evolve quickly; bad actors keep refining their tactics, mimicking reporters’ writing styles, and referencing startup trends to make their pitches increasingly convincing. Equally troubling, victims who agree to phone interviews tell us the fraudsters use those exchanges to dig for even more proprietary details. A PR rep told Axios that someone posing as a TechCrunch reporter raised suspi...