LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)- Experts are warning of a phishing scam targeting college students.
The Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission are warning college students about an email that claims to be from your university’s financial department.
“The fact that they’re speaking financial department and not saying financial aid is a clue right there that it’s not coming from the right source so we want to alert them to that in the first place,” Laurian Clause, with the Better Business Bureau of Acadiana, said.
You receive an email claiming to be from the financial department of your university.
“Any emails that they are receiving that is not from the actual university, we don’t want them clicking on it, going into the email,” explained Clause.
The email asks you to click a link to receive a message about your COVID-19 economic stimulus check.
Clause said, “It’s very enticing to want to go in there and click to find out information about it, so again, once you’re in that email, they’re asking you to go to your university portal to get your log in, all your log in credentials which is your username and password.”
Once the scammer gains access to your university login credentials, you may be giving your personal information to the scammer, and in addition, the ability to download malware onto your device.
“We want to caution them not to type anywhere in that email because what’ll happen is that they’re typing in that email they’re actually trigger what is called a ‘user interface event,’ which then can let that scammer know that they’re in that site, and they can start retreating information,” added Clause.
The Better Business Bureau shares the following tips to help protect you from this phishing scam email:
- If something suspicious, confirm it by calling the company directly or checking the company’s website.
- Don’t click, download, or open anything that comes from an anonymous sender. This allows the ability for the scammer to download malware onto your computer.
- Be cautious of generic emails. Scammers include little or not specific information in their fake emails.
If you have a scam you’d like me to investigate, feel free to send me an email at smasters@klfy.com.
