As the campus prepares to start the fall semester, please be reminded that phishing email scams continue to be a threat to the greater campus community.
Recently, a fake job offer email was sent to students from “Samuel Wiggins.” This email fits a common pattern of attacks that attempt to steal money from students in a check fraud/wire transfer scam. The emails often contain a vague but tempting job description, supposedly in connection with a department from the campus. Please know these individuals are NOT associated with SUNY Oswego, and legitimate job offers will not come to you in this manner. Avoid giving them any personal information, as you could open yourself up to becoming a target for additional phishing scams.
Other phishing attacks are targeting our faculty and staff. These emails appear to come from supervisors, deans, vice presidents or other executive level staff, with impersonated email accounts that look like SUNY Oswego email addresses. Sometimes, but not always, these spoofed email addresses will display in Gmail with the word ‘via’ in the From: line. These kinds of scams typically aim to secure gift cards, but could also be designed to steal information such as passwords. Please double-check the sender email address before responding, and consider following up with a phone call if something seems off about the exchange or request.
One useful tip for the entire community is to please remember that legitimate SUNY Oswego business should be conducted with an official oswego.edu email address, not an address from gmail.com, hotmail.com, or other external email providers. It is very easy for imposters to create email addresses that impersonate faculty, staff, executives or departments, so please pause before responding.
For more information, you can visit this Google Support Article about phishing, or reach out to the CTS Help Desk at help@oswego.edu or 315-312-3456.