A message from the IT Help Desk.

UMW Faculty and Staff,

Several faculty and staff have received emails from the sender “IT HelpDesk (via Google Drive)”

These are fraudulent phishing emails and should be deleted.

If you opened one of these emails and clicked on the link/document, you should contact the UMW Help Desk for assistance at helpdesk@umw.edu or 540-654-2255.

Here are some tips that will help protect you from phishing emails:

• Beware of emails asking you to confirm, check, review, or provide information using an attachment; it may be a malware attachment. If you do not know the sender or were not expecting an email from the sender, do not trust the attachment.
• Be suspicious of emails that create a sense of urgency. They often claim you will lose access to your account if you don’t click on a link and enter your NetID and password. Emails like this are trying to steal your account credentials. No legitimate organization will send you an email that tries to frighten you into clicking a link.
• Beware of emails that appear to come from a trusted source, but the sender’s email address is not a UMW account, or it is the email address belongs to a person you don’t recognize, and you can’t verify their legitimacy. Always check the sender’s email address, not just their name, to make sure the address legitimate.
• Be suspicious of emails that are poorly written and contain grammatical or spelling mistakes.

Thanks,

Mike Townes
Director of Information Technology Security/ISO
University of Mary Washington
(540) 654-2152
mtownes@umw.edu