The Trump administration confuses government employees with an e-mail test message

A new Trump administration plan to send an alert for around 2.3 million employees of the federal government of a single e-mail address was launched this week and confused at least part of the row and files, which were concerned about a suspect.

The staff management office “tests a new capacity allowing it to send important communications to all federal employees from a single e-mail address (HR-AT-PM -.GOV) if you receive an E -Mail of this address, it can be considered trust, “according to the message sent on Friday.

CBS News obtained a message screening and confirmed its authenticity with several federal employees and civil servants.

The OPM, which is the Federal Human Resources and Skills Service, sent the government’s message overnight, confirmed two agency officials to CBS News.

“It is a new effort under this administration“Said one of the officials.

The White House officials did not immediately answer questions about what the new e-mail alert system could be used or why the new system was implemented this week.

The Washington Post also reported on Friday that similar messages had been published in other agencies and departments from Thursday. Several people who claim to be government employees have reported email such as spam or phishing in two sons of Reddit for federal employees. A person of these Reddit Threads said that Food and Drug Administration had sent an email on Friday asking employees to stop reporting it, because the message is legitimate.

The e-mail seen by CBS News came with a warning from the information technology offices of the respective departments according to which the message “comes from outside the department” and that its content may not be sure.

“Everyone thought it was spam,” said the prediction, who asked that the screenbrab is not published. “There was a burst of messages:” Does this spam? “”

Friday morning, waking up with an e-mail of suspicious appearance did not do much to calm the nerves in the middle of a wave of large changes of staff through the federal government this week. President TrumpAs promised during his presidential campaign, published a new Executive actions and decrees This week to freeze hires; temporarily interrupt the publication government’s public health reports; Call for the end federal programs of diversity, equity and inclusion; And rekindle a project to hire the public service of its first administration that criticism warns could politicize the historically non-partisan federal workforce.

And the new administration is looking for means to eliminate waste, fraud, abuses and policies of the Biden era with a New government efficiency program Directed by a billionaire businessman Elon Musk.

“Did they have to send this this week, every week? Really?” said the person who reported the email.

OPM officials said that managers from other agencies and departments had received a notice on Thursday from plans to test a new “electronic mail communication test at the federal government”, which was also published on The OPM website. In some cases, the base has not learned from the e-mail plans until it arrived, leading to the confusion on Friday morning, one of the officials said.

Representatives of the American Federation of Government employees, one of the largest unions representing civilian federal workers, made no immediate comments on the new messaging system.

Erielle Delzer contributed to this report.