While we hope each of you are remaining vigilant in your avoidance of COVID-19 through social distancing and good personal hygiene, we want to make you aware of something else to watch for: emails that appear to come from the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS) but that might be from someone else.
Our Customer Service department has been made aware of emails sent to our members that appear to be associated with PERS and instruct recipients to click a link and get a retirement consultation. We know emails like these can be confusing to receive, so we want all of our employers, members, and retirees to remember the following tips for identifying emails from PERS.
Remember:
- You may receive a general email, similar to this one, but PERS will only email you about personal and specific retirement account information when responding to an email you sent us directly.
- Emails from PERS will always contain @pers.ms.gov in the address.
- Unless you are emailing directly with a PERS employee, the emails you receive from PERS should be from customerservice@pers.ms.gov, retirementeducation@pers.ms.
gov, or communications@pers.ms.gov.
- Watch for misspellings of our name, which is the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS).
- Empower, the third-party administrator of the Mississippi Deferred Compensation (MDC) plan, and the vendors associated with Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) may occasionally send emails to PERS members. Empower email addresses will contain @empower-retirement.com. For ORP vendor information, visit www.orp.ms.gov.
- Finally, when in doubt, call us. Do not click on a link or attachment from an email that looks questionable. Some emails you receive may be legitimate business offers. Others could be malicious. If you are concerned that we may be trying to reach you, please call us at 800-444-7377 or 601-359-3589. Our Customer Service staff continue to answer calls from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, even though our building remains closed to the public.
Please, take care of yourselves and stay well. Remember, we are working with you in mind. Thank you.
Ray Higgins
PERS Executive Director