Students at UNM Valencia Campus are receiving telephone-based “spear phishing” calls. Spear phishing attacks are an increasingly popular identity theft scam in which the attacker contacts the target (e.g., through e-mail, telephone, or text message) and tries to coax the target into divulging more sensitive personal identity or financial information.
Valencia campus students have been receiving phone calls from an individual or individuals claiming to be from UNM Financial Aid, asking them to divulge personal information.
Be advised that UNM will never call, e-mail, or text message faculty, staff or students asking for sensitive information. However, when you contact UNM directly, for example, through a UNM published telephone number, UNM staff may ask you for information to confirm your identity in order to provide the service you are requesting.
Some things you can do to protect yourself from phishing attacks are:
** Always ask for a call back number from someone claiming to be from your service provider. Confirm that number in a directory (e.g., directory.unm.edu) before returning the call.
** Never respond to e-mail requesting personal information.
** Never click on web site links in an email message – always manually type the address of a web site referenced in an email.
For more information on phishing, see the Federal Trade Commission web site for the publication “How Not to Get Hooked by a Phishing Scam.”
Posted by scarr at June 27, 2008 04:19 PM