Protect Yourself Against Phishing Scams
By now you should have received an email sent by Chief Information Officer Greg Jackson about protecting yourself against email phishing scams that fraudulently try to obtain your personal information.
Last weekend, a large number of people in the University community received an email claiming to be from the UCHICAGO.EDU TEAM and asking recipients to confirm their passwords in order to prevent immediate deactivation of their cMail accounts. This email was a scam. NSIT will only ask you to confirm your password at http://cnet.uchicago.edu, and will never ask you for your password either by phone or through email. If you responded to this message, you should change your password immediately. To read the full text of the email circulating within the University, click here.
A phishing scam is an attempt by perpetrators to send emails claiming to be from legitimate institutions such as banks or other services with which you may have accounts. These emails often require you to take immediate action such as confirming your financial information, social security number, or password, in order to prevent drastic action, such as account closure, from being taken. Recently, scammers have become increasingly clever by designing email templates that mimic the color schemes and logos of the institution that they claim to represent, creating the impression of authenticity. Most organizations will never ask you to confirm your personal information unless you have initiated a request through their website.
To learn how to identify fake URLs in phishing scam emails, play this online interactive game developed by Carnegie Mellon University. For more information about phishing scams, including how to detect them, please visit http://safecomputing.uchicago.edu/phishing.
Last updated: 3/21/08