Cyberscam Alert: Increase in phishing emails targeting the campus

The Office of Information Security (OIS) has identified recent phishing scams.

About the scam(s)
Subjects include:

  • Approved Job for the School
  • send me your available cell number
  • are you on campus
  • IT HELP DESK GENERAL UPDATES
  • Important Announcement: Your Microsoft Account Will be disable Soon

Recognizing the scam
Scams differ and might contain a combination of these red flags:

  • External email tag: [ CAUTION: This email is from outside of TU. Use caution before clicking links or opening attachments. If suspicious, report to phishing@towson.edu. ] Note: not all emails with this tag are malicious; it’s meant to raise your awareness and not all emails without the tag are safe.
  • Outrageous unsolicited opportunities. Sound too good to be true? It probably is. Especially job or internship offers that you didn’t apply for.
  • Fake sender screen name posing as someone you know using an unknown email address. Hover to confirm if you recognize the address.
  • Generic open-ended subjects or body text. Examples include: ‘Are you available’, ‘do you have a minute,’ “all email recipients” or asking for your mobile phone number.
  • Asking you to do something that you’d never do – like buy gift cards or other monetary/financial requests.
  • Uses fear/urgency – threatens you’ll lose something or miss out if you don’t act immediately.
  • Attempts to isolate the conversation – requests to move the correspondence to a text.

What to do if you’ve received this type of scam
If you receive this or a similar suspicious email in your TU account:

  • Confirm the sender. Look up their info and contact them directly.
  • Report the phish by using the ‘Report Phish’ button in Outlook on a computer, or by forwarding the email to phishing@towson.edu
  • Do not reply or complete the request.
  • Question the request. Ask yourself if the request is normal.
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This post was written by Weldon, Jennifer