Don’t Get Spooked by Phishing Scams

As the third week of National Cyber Security Awareness Month begins, the Information Technology Services Security Team reminds users to be vigilant about recognizing and avoiding phishing scams. Don’t get hooked-in by scare tactics from scammers masquerading as a bank, credit card company, or even the University of Arkansas.

Phishing scams are fraudulent messages, often designed to induce panic in the reader. These scams attempt to trick recipients into responding or clicking immediately by claiming the recipient will lose something like email or bank account access. Such a claim is indicative of a phishing scam, as responsible companies and organizations rarely take these types of actions via email. A message warning there is fraudulent activity on your account and asks you to "click here" to verify your information, for example, is a phishing scam.

To report a phishing email, expand the full header of the message and forward it to abuse@uark.edu. To learn how to expand full headers, see the tech article titled "Report Abusive Email with Expanded Full Headers Tech Article" at http://techarticles.uark.edu/email/report_abusive_email_with_expanded_headers.

Learn more about recognizing and avoiding these scams at http://techarticles.uark.edu/security/security_phishing_and_spam.