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

Every holiday season, I may receive two to three email scams about a package I ordered or a gift card I won. Except there was no package or gift card. This 2021 holiday season, I noticed an increased number of scams ranging from text messages to phone calls and email messages. 

In the second week of November, I received a text message informing me there were several attempts to access my bank account and if I wasn’t the person trying to access the account, I should click on a provided link to review my account information and secure it. I noticed the web address didn’t include the bank’s name. Clicking on the link would connect me to a webpage that exactly mimics my bank’s web login page.

Besides the text messages, I received several emails pretending to come from phone and entertainment companies I subscribe to about special offers. I also received phone calls from people pretending to be from the Social Security Office informing me of a possible social security number compromise. These were all fraudulent.

To protect my information and digital devices, I took the following steps:

1. Verified the information before I reacted. I called my bank on the number I know and asked about the text message I received. The bank assured me they don’t send customers text messages. They advised me to block the sender’s phone number and report the incident to their “abuse” hotline.
2. Didn’t click on the links nor provide sensitive information on a fake webpage or on a phone call. 
3. Deleted the scam phone messages and fraudulent emails. 
4. Reported the email scam to my department IT support staff to block the sender.
5. Installed and ran anti-virus software on my devices. 

Visit https://www.isc.upenn.edu/security/aware for additional information.

—W. Younes, Office of Information Security

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.