Ohio University

Watch out for e-mail scams

Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Sean O'Malley  

E-mails trying to hook you into "verifying" your account? Don't bite! 

Don't let an e-mail fool you into giving away personal information like your OHIO password. Be especially wary of quota warnings or account expiration messages that ask you to 'confirm' your account information.

If you do receive an unsolicited message that appears to come from OIT or the Service Desk, keep the following in mind:

• We will never ask you to email your password or other personal information to us.

• We will never ask you to open an attachment. 

• If we need you to visit a secure link, that link will not be clickable inside the message. Instead, we will include instructions on how to reach that link from the OHIO front door.

Scam artists often try to trick their victims into revealing passwords or other sensitive information by sending e-mail that appears to come from an official source like a bank, eBay, or even the OIT Service Desk. These messages can be quite clever, even using 'real' links to official web pages to allay suspicion. 

To report suspicious online activity, you can call the OIT Security Hotline at 740-566-SAFE or send e-mail to security@ohio.edu.