Phishing Alert!
Fri, 09/03/2010 - 11:03 — wbessette
The Help Desk has received numerous inquiries recently about bogus email messages requesting account and personal information.
Our email system blocks more than 300,000 Spam message a day. However, we cannot eliminate all bogus email messages. Therefore, it's very important you understand how to indentify what email messages are phishing email messages.
Please be aware that Technology Services, nor any legitimate organization, will NEVER request personal information from you via email. Never respond to an email requesting account or personal information.
The following tips are provided by Microsoft.
What does a phishing e-mail look like?
Phishing e-mail messages are designed to steal your identity. They ask for personal data, or direct you to Web sites or phone numbers to call where they ask you to provide personal data.
Phishing e-mail messages take a number of forms:
They might appear to come from your bank or financial institution, a company you regularly do business with, such as Microsoft, or from your social networking site. They might appear to be from someone you know. Spear phishing is a targeted form of phishing in which an e-mail message might look like it comes from your employer, or from a colleague who might send an e-mail message to everyone in the company, such as the head of human resources or IT.
They might ask you to make a phone call. Phone phishing scams direct you to call a customer support phone number. A person or an audio response unit waits to take your account number, personal identification number, password, or other valuable personal data. The phone phisher might claim that your account will be closed or other problems could occur if you don't respond.
They might include official-looking logos and other identifying information taken directly from legitimate Web sites, and they might include convincing details about your personal information that scammers found on your social networking pages. They might include links to spoofed Web sites where you are asked to enter personal information.
Questions?
Contact the Help Desk at (608) 246-6666.