PSA- “Available, Are you here?” And other Phishing Scams 10/21
There has been a recent uptick in phishing emails impersonating deans and directors being sent out to the university. Please be aware that you may have received one of these emails impersonating your dean or director. The email will usually have a short subject along the lines of “Hey are you available” or “are you on campus”. The scammer will use an email address that looks very similar to the impersonated person. For example, we’ve seen emails come in from drbernardwatlerdeanfmss@gmail.com, barbaradboyanphd@gmail.com, or stgooden.vcu.edu@gmail.com. Notice that all of these emails are NOT official VCU emails, they are not from a vcu.edu address. As such they should not be trusted. Please take the time to review the entire email before responding, any email address not from a vcu.edu account should not be trusted.
The scammers are after gift cards and will use a wide variety of tactics to gain your trust. The scammers will ask that you text them, they cannot take a call because they are stuck in a meeting. They will then ask that you complete a favor for them, which is to get a couple gift cards and send over the information to them. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND AND DO NOT PURCHASE ANY GIFT CARDS. You will NEVER be requested by VCU to purchase ANY GIFT CARDS.
If you are unsure if an email is a scam, please forward the email to infosec@vcu.edu for further investigation.