Members of the UNCG community are being targeted by a social-engineering attack that consists of conversational emails which appear to be from senior UNCG personnel and administrators. These are hand-crafted attacks in which criminals impersonate the officials, and direct the victim to purchase retail gift cards. Unfortunately, these types of scams have cost UNCG employees hundreds of dollars.

In this specific scam, the attacker impersonates a familiar employee, typically someone at a senior or executive level, using the correct name, signature line, and a similar-looking email address, to craft a personalized and legitimate-looking message. The attacker urgently asks help in purchasing gift cards, such as Apple iTunes gift cards. The recipient is then asked to send photos of the purchased cards, which allows the criminal to redeem the card’s value without actually possessing the card.

Pay close attention to the sender’s email address.  It may contain the name of a senior UNCG official, but it will not be a uncg.edu address.

If you receive an email with urgent news or a convincing story that pressures you to purchase gift cards, and then asks you to provide the codes on the back of the card…

STOP! It’s a scam!

Protect Yourself

To verify any messages you receive that seem “phishy,” you can…

• Speak directly with the person the email claims to come from. Look up the person’s directory information and give them a call. If the message directs you not to contact the sender, it should increase your suspicion about the validity of the message.
• Check the full email address on the message. These scam messages have displayed the name of a UNCG employee, but the actual email address is not a UNCG address.
• Contact 6-TECH if you believe a message may be a scam, especially if it appears to be  crafted, customized attack targeted at you. Targeted scam emails are harder for an automated system to detect than traditional mass-mailing spam.
• Do NOT respond if you receive one of the messages described above.
• If you did respond already, be vigilant against similar attacks in the future.
• If you receive a suspected scam message, delete the email, and do not respond.

If you believe you are a victim of a scam, contact 6-TECH. You may also file a report with the Federal Trade Commission at http://www.ftc.gov/complaint.

Additional Resources

You can review other types of phishing messages and scams at the UNCG Phishing Gallery.

Read more about gift card scams at:

• https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/paying-scammers-gift-cards
• https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2018/10/scammers-demand-gift-cards

SCAM OF THE WEEK: “The Boss Needs iTunes Gift Cards For Customers… NOW”

If you have questions or need assistance, please contact 6-TECH at (336) 256-TECH (8324) or [email protected].