The Reality of Phishing Scams in University Emails

University students are becoming more vulnerable to phishing scams and email fraud due to a lack of education about protecting themselves. Common attacks target scholarship opportunities, job offers, or university giveaways to obtain personal, financial, or educational information. Identifying these scams is necessary to protect your children, just as you protect your business.

Why Are University Students Targeted?

Cybercriminals see students as easy targets for several reasons:

• Financial Vulnerability

Many students are interested in offers dealing with financial aid, job offers or scholarship applications. Cybercriminals use this knowledge to their advantage as bait for their scams.

• Lack of Awareness

Most students are not trained to identify phishing attempts and do not know how to protect themselves against them.

• Institutional Trust

Cybercriminals impersonate university officials, professors, or club leaders to lure students into providing personal information.

• Access to University Systems

University students possess educational resources like library access and scholarly research that could benefit scammers.

Real-World Example: A Phishing Attack in Action

Meet Bella, a university student who narrowly escaped being scammed through her email. Bella was always interested in small side hustles, especially around the holiday season. She received an email detailing a fast way to make some money by being a secret shopper. Upon receiving an online cheque that she deposited, Bella was instructed to buy three gift cards from an electronic store and pocket the rest of the deposit. When checking out at the till, Bella was flagged for potential scammer activity, and the gift cards were deactivated. Several days later, she learned the cheque was invalid, and the money was removed from her account.

Bella trusted the email sender because it was sent through her university institution. If the scam had been successful, she could have lost thousands of dollars. Bella’s story is a prime example of the necessity of phishing education among university students.

Student-Targeted Phishing Examples:

1. Fake Scholarship and Financial Aid Scams

Scammers will imitate scholarships a university offers and request banking information or an initial deposit to secure the scholarship. Actual university-approved scholarships would never require this personal information through email but a more secure portal.

2. Urgent Security or Account Alerts

Cybercriminals will impersonate university officials who insist students must click a link immediately to unlock their accounts. Doing this leaves a student’s device vulnerable to malware or other hacking tactics.

3. Employment Scams

Another common scam is for students to receive intriguing job offers that require personal information like banking details or SIN numbers. Before researching their credibility and reputation, never give this information to a potential employer.

How to Spot a Phishing Email

• Suspicious Links or Attachments

Never click on a link from a sender without hovering over it to ensure it is an actual website. If the link does not match up with the email sender, do not open it.

• Grammar and Spelling Errors

Phishing emails tend to have grammatical errors. University representatives are trained to write formally and professionally.

• Unusual Sender Email Address

Unfamiliar Yahoo or Gmail accounts may pretend to impersonate university officials when emailing a student. Always check where the email comes from before responding.

How to Protect Yourself from Email Scams

1. Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA ensures that even if cybercriminals gain access to information like login passcodes or student numbers, they cannot access the account.

2. Access Official Websites Directly

Even if a link to an application portal seems to come from a reputable source, it is a good practice to access it through the official website. Accessing links through an email ensures a vulnerability that independent research prevents.

3. Keep Software Updated

By a student updating their devices frequently, the protection against cybercriminals is generally stronger.

4. Report Suspicious Emails

If suspicious that an email sent through the university has phishing criteria, reporting the sender to the university’s IT team protects fellow students from potential scams.

Conclusion

Students protecting themselves from common email scams and phishing attempts is crucial. All it takes is one click from the wrong sender for vital information to be exposed.