Gift Card Phishing Scam
October 4, 2018
We are seeing an uptick in phishing scams targeting Penn affiliates.
Good afternoon,
We are seeing an uptick in phishing scams targeting Penn affiliates, and wanted to raise awareness on campus. These messages purport to come from high-level Penn Administrators, asking people to help them with an urgent situation where they need gift cards purchased for an event. If the user responds to the initial message, they are given instructions to buy several gift cards, scratch off the coating protecting the ID, take a picture, and email the image back.
If you have fallen victim to this attack, please contact your LSP (servicedesk@nursing.upenn.edu). Victims are typically using their own funds to buy these cards, so we would like to make sure the word gets out that this is not a legitimate request.
Bob
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Bob DeSilets
Sr. Information Security Analyst
Office of Information Security (OIS)
University of Pennsylvania
