Phishing Emails
Recently, many at W&M have been receiving email messages with subject lines like: "CONFIRM YOUR USERID/PASSWORD." These are phishing messages. W&M IT will never ask you to provide your password in an email message.
Don't take the bait !!! - Never provide your userid and password in response to an email message.
For more information, see:http://www.wm.edu/offices/it/security/passwordsecurity/phishing/index.php
Some Identity Theft Tips:
- Never provide personal information unless you have initiated the contact and have confirmed the business or person's identity. You should only share your information with trusted sources. If you can't verify the identity of the source asking for your personal information, you should be very cautious about the transaction.
- Be extremely cautious of telephone and door-to-door solicitations.
- Be skeptical of offers that seem "too good to be true". They usually are.
- Learn to recognize fraudulent emails.
- Always report suspicious calls and emails requesting personal information to the police.
- If you do provide personal information to someone and you later feel like it may have been suspicious, contact your bank and credit card companies and advise them of the situation. There are also a number of legitimate credit report monitoring options available to you. The big three credit reporting companies, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax all provide for credit monitoring; as well as companies like FreeCreditReports.com or AnnualCreditReport.com
- The Federal Trade Commission also maintains a website called the Consumer Sentinel at http://www.ftc.gov/sentinel/. You can go to this site and file a Consumer Complaint Form, as well as find information on Identity Theft and Consumer Tips plus much more.
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Change your password immediately if you feel your account has been compromised
- And finally, report phishing by forwarding the suspicious email to abuse@wm.edu
