Canadian healthcare staff decry ‘cruel hoax’ after scam email promises paid day off

For years, healthcare staff in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador have felt overworked and under-appreciated. Turnover, burnout and thinning resources were pushing workers in the sector to a breaking point. So when the email titled “June Holiday” arrived in thousands of inboxes, they felt a moment of overdue joy. The message thanked them for their professionalism and their work ethic, citing hundreds of hours of recent mandatory overtime to implement a new digital platform called CorCare. The email said the province “recognizes the work employees have carried through a significant period of change”, and, as a token of appreciation, it promised to reward them with a paid day off. “Thank you for the care, professionalism, and commitment you continue to bring to N.L. Health Services and to the people and community we serve,” it said. Recipients were told to simply click a link to register for the “June Holiday” on offer. The email was sent to staff from an outside domain: remailmail.com. It was a sign that anyone hoping for a well-deserved day off was about to be disappointed. The following day, they were informed that the message – and their paid vacation day – was in fact part of an internal cybersecurity test to track employees who clicked on the link. When staff, many of whom were denied time off during the rollout of CorCare, learned they’d been tricked, their reaction was disbelief and anger. …