We are tracking a news story about the City of Dallas. Reports indicate that the City of Dallas is experiencing service outages associated with a ransomware attack on its IT systems. We will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that SMU is not impacted, but we’ll need your help to monitor for any suspicious activity. Continue reading Security Incident at City of Dallas
Tag: Phishing Alert
University Sees Increase in Phishing Messages During Pandemic
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, we have seen a sharp increase in phishing attacks against SMU. We wanted to make you aware of two specific phishing campaigns that have impacted campus users recently. Continue reading University Sees Increase in Phishing Messages During Pandemic
“Work Opportunity” Email: Phishing Notice
We are currently experiencing a number of reports of an email about a work opportunity: this is a phishing campaign targeting students. Our team has put measures in place to reduce the influx of these messages, but if you do receive one, please do not respond.
In this particular sample, the scammers put the whole email in a PDF document to evade the spam filter. Please see the FTC’s Anatomy of a fake check scam for more information about these types of fake check scams. Continue reading “Work Opportunity” Email: Phishing Notice
Phishing Alert: Read this message
You may have received an email earlier today that appeared to come from someone you know. The subject of the email message varies, but they all have button stating “Read this message.” This is a phishing email and is not legitimate. Please delete this message. If you clicked on the link, please contact the IT Help Desk at 214-768-HELP or 214-768-4357 immediately.
Thank you for your continued diligence in exercising caution with suspicious emails.
New gift card phishing scam using fake supervisor email addresses
As we begin the Spring semester, we would like to remind you to be diligent in watching for phishing emails. Over the last several weeks, OIT has been notified by a number of faculty and staff members who have received messages that appear to come from supervisors. The email will urgently request that the individual purchase a gift card (Walmart, iTunes, etc.). The emails have used an external email address like supervisors.name@gmail.com instead of their SMU email address.
The phisher will request that the gift card numbers and pin need to be emailed or texted to the supervisor. These scammers do their research to get the name of the boss and details of his/her employees. Tracing their source is very difficult.
Don’t be fooled!
Below is the sample email exchange in chronological order. Continue reading New gift card phishing scam using fake supervisor email addresses
