Take a Break from Phishing!
Scam e-mail messages have been arriving on campus again. These email messages are known as “phishing.” A typical phishing message will request you to give some personal information (Social Security Number, date of birth, password, …) after clicking on a link to a website in the e-mail. Often, the website will look as if it is a trusted business (a bank, eBay, …) but it is really a scam; it’s an attempt to get YOUR personal information.
We want to emphasize these messages are not legitimate. No reputable business will solicit account numbers, passwords, or other personal data from you via e-mail.
The Help Desk is often asked, “Can’t you stop these e-mails from arriving in my mailbox?” We stop thousands of them (literally) each day, but we can’t stop all of them (we would if we could!). For example, if we block any phishing e-mails claiming to be from eBay or PayPal, the junk mail filters might end up blocking actual valid e-mail messages from eBay or PayPal.
For more information on identifying phishing scams and protecting yourself, please visit the following sites:
