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IT Security at UM-St. Louis

A New Year! Same Threats.

Going Phishing at UMSL

No not in the pond by the MSC. UMSL is constantly getting Phished with email. Most faculty, staff and students at UMSL have been Phished. You get Phished when you receive an email that pretends to be real but isn't.

These emails arrive letting you know that your bank account is locked or your credit card is overdrawn or you have money waiting at the IRS. Or my new personal favorite at UMSL.....

Your UMSL webmail service is changing or your UMSL account is locked. Please send us your email address and password so that we can reset it.

First of all, UMSL ITS (and hopefully every other UMSL department) will NEVER ask you to email your password to us. In fact, it is actually against the campus acceptable use policy for us to ask for and use your password.

Second, all emails from UMSL ITS will be from an actual person and not a generic thing like the the UMSL Help Desk or accounts@umsl.edu. It will be from a person that you can verify in the directory and call if you have questions.

Now, the other ones from banks and credit cards. I truly doubt that a bank or credit card company will email you to tell you that there is a problem with your account. I would not do business with them and you shouldn't either. Email is not secure. Tons of people could possibly read it and I do not want them knowing about my banking.

The criminals want you to go to their web sites (that look like the bank site) and give them your bank numbers, or social security numbers, or usernames and passwords. They want your information to sell and they are very rich from doing this.

So, when you get Phished, forward it on to abuse@umsl.edu and then throw it back!