Michelle AngukaChapman University’s IS&T department has reported a recent increase in the number of phishing emails being sent to Chapman account holders – primarily students. Recent messages have been scams offering lucrative job opportunities, including a pet sitting opportunity yesterday, Apr. 27. This is a check deposit scam and is designed to access private information and solicit money from Chapman students, faculty and staff.
Do not respond to the sender or forward the message to anyone except abuse@chapman.edu.
To see the latest phishing attempts and email scams being monitored by IS&T, including the verbiage of the pet setting email mentioned above, please visit their Information Security website. If you do not see your email posted on the page, please report the email.
Look Out For These Red Flags
Phishing emails often look like they’re from a company you know and trust. If an email seems suspicious, look for some tell tale signs. These include emails that:
- Ask you to send personal information (e.g. In the latest pet sitting scam, the scammer’s request is to: “Kindly reply with your personal email.”
- Urge you to click a link.
- Ask you to enter your username and password.
- Request money transfer.
- Ask you to buy gift cards.
- Have poor wording or phrasing that seems off.
How to Protect Yourself
- Do not use the same password for your Chapman account that you use on other websites. For more on password safety, read 5 Tips to Make Your Password More Secure During Covid-19.
- Review emails from unknown senders carefully. Any email that tells you to use your own private (non-Chapman) account for further communication should be viewed suspiciously.
- Never send money to someone who contacted you out of the blue, for any reason.
- Please check the Trending Email Scams webpage for the latest updates on the scam emails affecting Chapman.
