Security Alert: Email Impersonation Scam Targeting Some Of Our Clients

We want to alert all of our clients and business partners to a recent phishing scam where an unauthorized party is sending fraudulent emails while impersonating Paul from Gold Coast Business Websites.

If you have received an email regarding urgent “WordPress compliance” or domain renewals from a generic Gmail account, please do not engage with it.

🚨 What Is Happening?

A scammer has set up a fraudulent Gmail address pretending to be me. To make the email look authentic, they scraped publicly available images, social media profile links, and my email signature directly from our website.

Here are the specific details of the scam:

• Sender Address: paul.goldcoastbusinesswebsites@gmail.com
• Subject Line: Urgent: WordPress Compliance & Renewal Required August 30th
• The Message: The scammer claims they received a call from “WordPress Support” stating that your website is out of compliance, demands immediate domain and plugin renewals, and attempts to upsell SEO setup under threat of your site being shut down.

🔒 Important: Our Systems Were NOT Hacked

Your data remains 100% secure. This is a case of impersonation, not a data breach. Our servers, internal database, hosting environments, and client records have not been compromised. The scammer simply created a free Gmail account and scraped public images and email addresses publicly available on the web.

🔍 Key Red Flags to Spot the Scam

If you receive a suspicious message claiming to be from us, keep these red flags in mind:

• Generic Email Addresses: Official communication from me will only ever come from our registered business domain (@goldcoastbusinesswebsites.com.au), never from a free @gmail.com account.
• Unusual Language: The scam email uses awkward salutations like “Hi Dear”.
• False Urgency from “WordPress Support”: WordPress is open-source software; “WordPress Support” does not make phone calls demanding immediate renewals or threatening to take down independent client websites.

🛠️ What You Should Do

If you receive this email (or any email you suspect might be fake):

1. Do not click any links or download attachments.
2. Do not reply or send any payments.
3. Mark the message as Spam or Phishing in your email software (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.) and delete it.
4. Verify directly: If you are ever unsure whether an email from us is legitimate, call me directly or send a fresh email to my official address.

We have already reported this account to Google’s Abuse and Security team for impersonation. Thank you to the attentive clients who brought this to our attention right away!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out through our official contact form.