Faculty and Staff Targeted in Phone Phishing Scams

IT Services has recently received reports of malicious phone calls from scammers attempting to exploit the university network, gain personal information or commit financial fraud. Scammers request personal information, such as usernames, passwords or IP addresses, and the calls often originate from blocked or international numbers.

IT Services reminds users to never provide UARK passwords to anyone for any reason. Users should also be suspicious of any unknown caller who asks to initiate remote desktop or Bomgar sessions or to run a program on an office computer.  Report suspicious calls or emails to security@uark.edu with detailed information.

The IT Services Security Team advises faculty and staff to request the name, number and department of an unknown caller who requests technical or personal information and verify the person’s contact information by searching at directory.uark.edu. Legitimate department tech partners are listed online at https://techarticles.uark.edu/tech_partners/list. If the caller appears legitimate, return the call using the information from the University Directory.

IT Services and other university tech support personnel will never solicit users for passwords or other personal information. Valid phone calls from university staff will not originate from a blocked or international phone number.

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