School Is In, So Are Scammers

Dear Colleagues and Students,

Welcome back to The Beach!  The new school year is an exciting time for students, faculty, and staff.  It is also an exciting time for cybercriminals who may take advantage of you during this busy time of year.  Below are typical start-of-school scams to watch out for:

• Emails supposedly containing “important information about your Beach account,” or a “problem with your registration,” or “account expiration errors”
• Phishing scams specifically designed to cheat students out of money, such as those involving scholarships, financial aid, textbook rental or book-buying, housing, tutoring, job openings and work-from-home
• Phishing scams posing as “gift card” urgent requests from your Supervisor, Manager, or your Executive Teams are always a guaranteed fraud.
• “Tech support” scams where you get a call supposedly from “Technology Help Desk” or even “Microsoft” or “Apple” telling you there’s a problem with your computer or account and require verification
• IRS impersonators demanding that students or their parents wire money immediately to pay a fake "federal student tax”
• Emails, phone calls or text messages asking for your login information, no matter how legitimate they may appear.  No one other than you needs to know your passwords.
• Fake friend requests on social media
• Unsolicited text messages with unknown links for product discount codes, prize winnings, or account verification
• Fake OneDrive or SharePoint, Dropbox or Google Doc notices

If you have any questions or concerns with information security, please contact ISO@csulb.edu.  As always, you can report suspicious emails by forwarding them to alert@csulb.edu.

Cuc Du

Information Security Officer