Phishing is a scam that uses targeted email or pop-up messages to deceive consumers into disclosing personal information including credit card or bank account info, Social Security numbers and passwords.
Phishers send messages using a sense of urgency and claiming to be from a business or organization that you may be involved with at work or school. These campaigns can send emails from your account to all of your contacts. Additionally, email addresses, logos and login pages can all be spoofed to appear legitimate. Phishing attempts will often impersonate various types of Towson University communications. Don’t take the bait.
As one of many layers of cyberprotection, the Office of Technology Services has enabled phishing detection on TU email accounts. If you have concerns about links in an email, forward it to phishing AT_TOWSON. You are still the University's best line of defense -think before you click!
These characteristics should be considered signs of a phishing message:
To learn more, read Microsoft's article: “How to recognize Phishing Email Messages.”
These are actual phishing emails received by phishing AT_TOWSON. The each email is in PDF form and is listed by subject line. Click to view the example: