“Let’s stay in touch. Have you updated your most recent contact details yet? We promise, it will only take a few minutes.”
Those words are the opening statement of a red-flag raising out-of-nowhere Mailchimp newsletter that landed in my inbox from the Hamilton Public Library.
I was naturally suspicious of a phishing scam. My email address is publicly known, and it is no secret that I live in Hamilton.
Like all human beings on the Internet, daily, I receive multiple emails purporting to be Nigerian royalty, lawyers in the United Kingdom offering me my inheritance, and Chinese importers seeking an agent for a business arrangement. (I should’ve responded to the fly-by-night importer; he probably had a real City of Hamilton contract.)
The Hamilton Public Library email included multiple red flags. It was unexpected, asked me to log in to my account with a masked tracking link, to “update your information,” and “then press Save.”
Here is the text of the mass email (emphasis in original):
Let’s stay in touch. Have you updated your most recent contact details yet? We promise, it will only take a few minutes.
Log in to your account to confirm your contact information. If your contact information is correct, select “I confirm all information is correct,” then select Save. If the information is incorrect, select Update Your Information, make the corrections and then press Save. You may also visit your local branch to update your information by providing ID.
Adding to my concern, the email did not include the physical address for the Hamilton Public Library. Deepening my doubts, I cover the Library Board and there was no mention of a plan to request library cardholders update their information.
My email server confirmed the message originated from Mailchimp. This meant the campaign URL would lead me to a Mailchimp-managed webpage, and not some random guy’s phishing net.
As a journalist, I need to keep my spam filter settings on low. You never know what stories could arrive in an anonymous non-traceable email.
I manually entered the campaign URL into a sandboxed virtual machine instance to unmask the hyperlinks.
To my surprise, all the URLs link to the legitimate Hamilton Public Library website.
So, if you are like me and wondered if this email is legitimate, it is.
Before I ensure the Library has my correct address, I probably should return that long overdue book that was due weeks months ago. 😬
Production Details
v. 1.0.1
Published: June 11, 2026
Last updated: June 11, 2026
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
v. 1.0.1 removed three repetitive words from original. No change in meaning or tone.