“PSU Phishing Scams”: Cyber Crime

Have you ever been scammed? Maybe even hacked? Or maybe you haven’t? Or maybe you actually have and haven’t even noticed? Cybercrime is an issue that continues to face Americans each and every day. In an article titled These Cybercrime Statistics Will Make You Think Twice About Your Password: Where’s the CSI Cyber team when you need them? it states, “With 1.5 million annual cyber attacks, online crime is a real threat to anyone on the internet. That number means there are over 4,000 cyber attacks every day, 170 attacks every hour, or nearly three attacks every minute,” (These Cybercrime Statistics Will Make You Think Twice About Your Password: Where’s the CSI Cyber team when you need them?). That means every day you get on your computer or log into the internet you risk the possibility of being potentially hacked or being scammed by a random phishing website. There have been instances where even I have been on the internet and I have been spammed with pop up windows and random emails saying that “IF YOU TAKE THIS SURVEY YOU CAN WIN A FREE IPHONE”. I know these are fake and I am smart enough to not take these offers. I warn you today about these potential phishing schemes because I was almost scammed over the summer by a PSU phishing website scheme. I usually do not give in to the pressures presented by these fake phishing sites. However, over the summer I was almost scammed by someone on the internet claiming to be a college professor here at Penn State. They contacted me over email claiming to be a Penn State college professor named professor Morgan from the English department at Penn State. They also claimed to be in desperate need of an undergraduate assistant who could take care of some of her busy work while she was gone. She told me that she needed me to do a set of tasks for her before she returned back from her trip from Australia. The first task she asked me to complete was to buy blank checks from the store and then try to send money over to an account attached to her business. Professor Morgan informed me that if I continued to complete the tasks she asked from me that I would be certified to work as her personal assistant for three hours a week for a paycheck of $200. Myself, being new to college and everything, believed this opportunity to be real due to the fact it came from my PSU email and it was from a professor. Over time I became to become very skeptical of this offer and decided to call the Penn State office. After calling PSU to confirm whether or not this offer was legit, they told me that the opportunity I was pursuing was a phishing scheme that had also been sent to other students like myself. If I were to go even further with this scheme I could have gotten myself into serious legal trouble and would have lost money in the process. From this experience, I have become very conscious of what I believe to be true on my Penn State email. To all my readers, my legal fanatics, and my fellow peers please be mindful when you’re on the internet as you never know who is on the other side of that screen.