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Why should you be careful with e-mail?
- Criminals and hackers are constantly coming up with new schemes designed to compromise computers, steal personal or private information or passwords, or trick you out of money.
- Deceptive e-mails often include links to websites that look legitimate, but which are really bogus sites designed to steal information. Others include links or attachments that can infect vulnerable computers.
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Key indicators that an e-mail is not legitimate:
- It asks you for personal or financial information
- It asks you for a password or user name
- It asks you to forward it to your friends, co-workers or family
- It promises you something too good to be true
- It is an unexpected e-mail with a link or an attachment
How to protect yourself:
- Don’t click on links or open attachments in unexpected e-mail.
- Delete spam and suspicious e-mails; don't open, forward or reply to them.
- Don't send personal information via email or instant message (IM) or online forms you access via a link in an e-mail or IM. These are often part of "phishing" scams, a form of fraud that uses e-mail messages that appear to be legitimate in an attempt to gain personal or account information.
- If you are uncertain about the legitimacy of an e-mail or phone call, contact the sender separately by a method you know to be legitimate to verify.
- Remember that any unexpected e-mail or phone call asking you to disclose account numbers, your social security number, your password or other personal or private information is suspicious.
GETTING HELP:
Contact the ITS Support Center if you would like your computer configured to meet these requirements. For fastest response, open a request. You can also email help@ucsc.edu or call 459-HELP (4357).
Contact the ITS Support Center with questions or concerns about any of this information, or to report possible email scams and phishing email.
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