Email Safety

PHISH-ing

Spear PHISH-ing

There have continued to be “spear” PHISH-ing attempts when someone has set the display name on their email as one of our department heads and deans. The emails are NOT vt.edu addresses, for example devi.vt.edu@gmail.com instead of devi@vt.edu  

Please be diligent on verify email addresses and treat suspicious requests as such. Our deans or departments will NOT ask you to send gift cards due to a financial hardship. If you have communicated with some of the PHISH-ers, there is no harm and you did not get a virus. They just know you are likely to fall for the same tactic in the future.