College Community Reminded to Be Vigilant About E-mail Scams

Once again, Information Technology Services alerts the Penn College community about widespread e-mail scams that target customers of well-known businesses such as Citibank, eBay and PayPal. Some even appear to come from the information technology department of the college.

These "phishing" scams try to deceive you into providing account information by replicating familiar corporate logos, trademarks and Web sites. Feeding on consumers' fear of identity theft, the imposters warn of a possible security breach and then direct you to a Web page where you can confirm your account information or change your password.

Following these links may result in a virus or spyware being installed on your computer. More importantly, providing the requested information jeopardizes your privacy and account security.

Rules of Thumb

• Do not open an attachment or follow a link unless you are absolutely sure of the content and trust the sender
• Do not respond to an e-mail requesting personal information or account verification. If you believe the request may be legitimate, call the business directly to verify the request.
• Lastly, ITS will never send you an e-mail asking for your password or other network account information