Phishing Scam

Some spam mails are more than just unwanted and annoying. They could lead to the theft of your credit card numbers, passwords, account information, or other personal data. Read on to find out more about this new identity theft scam and to learn how to help protect your privacy.

Definition

According to Microsoft Security Help, Phishing is a type of deception designed to steal your identity. In phishing scams, scam artists try to get you to disclose valuable personal data: credit card numbers, passwords, account data, through false pretenses. A lot of phishing schemes are delivered online through spam e-mail or pop-up windows.

How does Phishing Scam work?

Phishing works by making an email or web site appear to be legitimate, thereby providing potential victims with a false sense of security. The email or website requests the recipient to provide sensitive information, which may later be used to commit fraud, whether it be Identity Theft, or purchasing goods using your card information.

If you do receive a scam email, you should not click on any of the links it contains or believe anything it says. Ideally you should delete it straight away, but it would be useful if you submit it to the bank, company or institution it is targeting.

Below are some key “red flags” to help you identify emails that are spam/phishing email messages that may come to your Goshen College email account:

1. If it claims to be Goshen College related email but is NOT coming from a GC e-mail address, it is NOT legitimate.
2. If it claims to be Goshen College related email and IS coming from a GC address, it still may not be legitimate. See points 3 through 5 below.
3. ITS will NEVER ask you to reply back with your username and password.
4. ITS will NEVER ask you to click on a link to verify your account.
5. ITS will NEVER ask you to confirm that you are still using your account, or threaten account closure if you do not click on a link to verify that you are still using your account.

• Student accounts will remain active until six months after the last class taken.
• Employee accounts remain active until employment with Goshen College ends.
• Accounts of employees who have officially retired from GC will remain active until the account is no longer needed.
• If you are ever about to go over your quota on the mail server or on GCFile, ITS will send you an e-mail notifying you, but we will never ask for your credentials. See above.

If you are ever in question, please call the ITS help desk at ext. 7700 before responding to an email message or clicking on a link in an email. If you do receive a phishing e-mail, please forward it to phishinggoshen.edu so we can try to track down its source and try to shut them down.

• Take the Phishing Quiz