How They Work
As the winter holiday season approaches, take time to review alerts about seasonal scams. Scams may arrive as email, text, phone, and social media messages. They are continually adapted to target university communities through phishing, gift card scams, phony holiday invitations and messages, and fraudulent offers for seasonal employment.
Your awareness of these schemes is the best defense. Check out the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) advisory on Online Holiday Shopping Scams (linked in Actions).
Holiday scams are often aimed at the elderly, so share helpful and relevant information with family and friends who may be targeted.
The following tips may help keep your personal information and WPI Network ID login credentials secure throughout the year:
- Beware of requests for transfers of money or gift cards.
- Messages that solicit money, ask for your financial or bank account information, or offer to send you money should be regarded as highly suspicious.
- Be aware that scammers may use phone calls to contact you, and they may use info they’ve found online to trick you into believing they are someone you know. Be skeptical of any unsolicited call.
- Be cautious about clicking links and opening attachments in email, even from someone you know.
- Use strong passwords and protect your WPI Network credentials.
- Report suspected email scams to phishing@wpi.edu.
Resources
Links for each are available in Actions.
- Online Holiday Shopping Scams advisory from CISA
- Holiday Online Safety Tips Sheet from CISA
- Report Internet Fraud to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3.gov)
- Scams and Fraud info from AARP
(Photo by Max Fischer from Pexels)