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One Step Ahead: Gift Card Scams Hitting Hard (Still)

Another tip in a series provided by the Offices of Information Systems & Computing and Audit, Compliance & Privacy

On February 12, 2019 (Almanac Volume 65 Issue 23), the University of Pennsylvania’s Office of Information Security (OIS) informed the Penn community about gift card scams and provided steps on protecting yourself and Penn.  Regrettably, these scams continue to attract trusting employees rushing to accommodate an alleged senior administrator’s call for urgent assistance. These victims are losing hundreds of dollars to these gift card scams.  

OIS urges you to be vigilant and pause before you purchase a gift card for an administrator or a faculty member. Before you act, contact your local computing support provider to verify if the message is genuine. As a reminder:

  • Read the sender’s email address carefully. Usually, Penn employees use a Penn email address for work communication, e.g., username@upenn.edu
  • If in doubt about the email address, hit Reply, but don’t send: pay attention if the email address changes in the Reply To field to a non-Penn email.
  • This is not how Penn does business. Penn personnel will NOT ask you to purchase gift cards for University business or personal purposes.
  • If you have fallen victim to this scam, report the incident to your IT support staff. If you are unaware who provides your computing support, please see: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/my-it-local-support-provider
  • You may want to contact the company that issued the gift card to inform them about the scam. There is a slight chance they may be able to get your money back.
  • Contact the Federal Trade Commission to report the gift card scam at ftc.gov/complaint or call 1(877) FTC-HELP.

For more information, visit:

For additional tips, see the One Step Ahead link on the Information Security website: https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/news-alerts#One-Step-Ahead

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