Kansas State University

search

IT News

Tag: scam

Teach yourself how to recognize an e-mail scam

In the past month, nearly 200 K-State computers were compromised when people were tricked into opening a malicious e-mail attachment. Since January, nearly 300 K-Staters have given their eID password to hackers in response to spear phishing e-mail scams.

Besides a reminder to never give out your eID password in an e-mail, it is time once again to emphasize the importance of individual users learning how to recognize a scam or malicious e-mail.

One of the best tools for learning how to distinguish a legitimate e-mail from a malicious one is the Phishing and Spam IQ Quiz produced by Sonicwall. The quiz displays 10 different e-mails and has you decide whether each is legitimate or a phishing scam. At the end, it compares your answers to the correct ones and provides an explanation for each e-mail message.

Continue reading “Teach yourself how to recognize an e-mail scam”

“Very cheap Macbook” is an offer too good to be true

The problem

Over the last several weeks, an e-mail has been received by K-Staters telling recipients that if they contact the sender, they will receive a “very cheap” Macbook. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s a scam.

Take a look at the e-mail and note some of the factors that should alert you to these kinds of scams. Continue reading ““Very cheap Macbook” is an offer too good to be true”

Q/A: How to tell if e-mail is legitimate or scam?

How can I tell if e-mail is legitimate or a spam or scam?

First, any e-mail asking for a password or other security data is almost certainly a scam.  Don’t ever respond to that type of e-mail; just delete it.

Second, go to K-State’s IT security blog at threats.itsecurity.k-state.edu and search for a few keywords from the e-mail’s subject line.

Continue reading “Q/A: How to tell if e-mail is legitimate or scam?”