IT Announcement – IRS Warning of Email Scam

IRS is warning faculty, students and staff of an impersonation email scam targeting educational institutions, primarily those with a “.edu” email address. The suspect emails display the IRS logo and use various subject lines such as “Tax Refund Payment” or “Recalculation of your tax refund payment.” It asks people to click a link and submit a form to claim their refund.

Taxpayers who believe they have a pending refund can easily check its status on “Where’s My Refund?” on IRS.gov.  

If you receive this or any scam email do not click on any link(s) in the email. We ask that you are vigilant of this and all other potential phishing scams.

What to Do?

If you receive a suspected phishing email or if you believe your account has been compromised, contact the IT Help Desk IMMEDIATELY! Or use the Report Phish button in Outlook.

 Here are a few tips to help you spot phishing attempts and keep your data secure:

• To help identify potential phishing and improve security, emails received from outside our campus email system will have a cautionary message and “[EXTERNAL]” in subject line
• Please check the sender email address.  Fullerton employee emails are always [username]@FULLERTON.EDU, not GMAIL.COM, OUTLOOK.COM or any other domain name
• Do not respond to any email from anyone asking for money or gift cards. Pick up the phone and call the sender to confirm authenticity
• Do not provide sensitive personal information such as usernames and passwords
• Do not forward any suspicious emails to other users

 For security best practices, please visit the Information Security Office website.