The Mason community is experiencing an increase in phishing designed to defraud faculty and staff.

Cybercriminals are using names and fake email addresses of senior officials to ask faculty and staff to purchase gift cards. For example, the fake address may use a senior official’s name [DOT]gmu[DOT]edu[AT]gmail[DOT]com to confuse or mislead recipients. The display name may be correct. The initial email uses subjects like ‘available’ or ‘urgent request’ to get recipients to respond back. They may ask recipients to purchase gift cards and respond with the card information to cash in the cards.

Please take the time to evaluate the sender’s email address to determine if it is a legitimate [AT]gmu.edu address. It should be an email you are normally expecting.

What you should do

If you receive one of these emails, please do not respond. Report the email to the ITS Support Center at 703-993-8870 or support@gmu.edu. Please be prepared to provide the original malicious email.