Academic Technology Launchpad: Phishing

Our college email systems block over 300,000 spam messages a day, but we cannot eliminate all spam messages. It is very important that you understand how to identify which email messages might be malicious or suspicious.

If an email looks suspicious, it probably is!

• Check the sender's email address. 
• Delete suspicious emails. 
• Do not click any links in suspicious emails.
• Do not open attachments from unknown or  unexpected  senders.
• Do not reply to or forward a suspicious email.
• Report phishing attempts.

Protect your personal identity and information!

• Do not share any of your usernames and passwords. The College will never contact you requesting your password.
• Do not send sensitive, personal or confidential information by email or online. 

Phishing = A fraudulent attempt usually made through email to steal your personal information or to install malware on  your computer or phone.

Phishing e-mail messages are designed to steal your identity. They ask for personal data, or direct you to websites or phone numbers to call where they ask you to provide personal data. Unauthorized users may then use your information to send email from your email address, access your bank and other accounts, or purchase items on your credit card.

Madison College does not ask for your personal identity information via email.   

Phishing email messages may:

• appear to come from your bank or financial institution, companies like Microsoft or Facebook, or from someone you know. 
• appear to come from someone who might send an email to everyone in the organization, such as the college president. 
• include official-looking logos and other information taken directly from legitimate websites
• seem urgent or too good to be true
• have spelling, grammar or punctuation errors. 
• include links to spoofed websites where you are asked to enter personal information.
• direct you to call a customer support phone number where they ask for your personal information. 

Junk email Settings and the Spam Filter

Your college email gives you the ability to manage lists of email addresses and domains that you want to block or allow emails from.

To get to the Junk email settings from your inbox: Click on Options, then Select Block or Allow.

Blocked Senders List

Messages that are received from any email address or domain on your Blocked Senders List are sent directly to your Junk Email folder.

To add a sender to the Blocked Senders list

In the Blocked Senders list, type an email address or domain in the text box, and then press Enter.

To add a sender to the blocked senders list, in an email message you've received from that sender, right click on the sender's name, select Junk Mail, then choose Add sender to blocked senders list. This will automatically send  all incoming emails from this sender to your Junk email folder.

Safe Senders and Recipients List

This list will contain domains and email addresses that you choose are safe for you. Any email coming from the domain or email in this list will be directly delivered to your Inbox.