Since the beginning of the semester, the university’s Information Technology Department has worked to keep scammers at bay.
So far, students, faculty and staff have been protected from four scams–three cases of phishing scams and one telephone support scam.
Phishing is when a hacker uses emails and pop-ups in order to con someone into giving away sensitive personal information such as financial information, passwords or social security numbers.
Madison Everhart, a freshman pharmacy major, said it has happened to her roommate and herself once.
“Something happened with my MacBook where [the email] asked for my information,” Everhart said. “I just called Apple instead of putting in information.”
Calling the computer company instead of giving out personal information through the internet or telephone is a method used to avoid scammers.
Although phishing scams are on the rise nationally, many students are not aware of what they are or how to prevent them. Since January 2015, the FBI has seen a 270 percent increase in identified victims and more than $2.3 billion in losses nationally.
Often after the device is hacked, it will lock up and ransom personal documents or information, asking the owner to send a large amount of money.
The university has sent a total of seven emails warning students and staff of scams since September.
The university’s IT Security Department was contacted multiple times but never responded.
Kourtney Grimstad, a junior communications sciences and disorders major, said she is not computer-savvy and would not know what to do if a scammer attacked her.
“My first instinct would be to just hit the (escape key) and try to close whatever popped up,” Grimstad said. “Then I would probably call my dad to help.”
Those who attempt these scams are tech-savvy and can even replicate popular websites. At the university, the three phishing scams included a message circulating from a ‘Blackboard Notification Team’ with the subject ‘Mail Registration,’ an email appearing to be from the ‘University of Mississippi’ with the subject ‘Human Resources’ and an email with the subject ‘Staff Meeting Notification’ that links to a replica of the university webmail portal.
The main ways to protect electronic devices and information is to keep a firewall turned on, update antivirus and anti-spyware protection, be careful when downloading programs and turn off the device when it’s not in use, according to the FBI.
One method to prevent being attacked by scammers is to ignore suspicious-looking emails.
Haithem Mahmoud, a sophomore electrical engineering major, said ignoring the emails would be his way to deal with the scams.
“If something like a phishing scam were to happen to me, I would probably just not open and ignore the emails,” Mahmoud said. “I would also check to see if the ‘virus’ was real or not, then fix it myself.”
Despite precautions, there have been multiple phishing cases in the Oxford area within the past few years, including the phishing emails sent to the Oxford School District’s Google accounts to review account details according to regulations last February. Scammers could then steal credentials concerning the accounts or even install malicious software onto their computers.
