{"id":104471,"date":"2025-09-16T12:32:36","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=104471"},"modified":"2025-09-16T17:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T21:09:11","slug":"brock-its-shares-tips-for-spotting-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/09\/brock-its-shares-tips-for-spotting-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"ITS shares tips for spotting scams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brock\u2019s Information Technology Services (ITS) team is sharing tips to help students, faculty and staff recognize <a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/information-technology\/security\/social-engineering\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">strategies used by scammers<\/a> to steal users\u2019 personal information and money.<\/p>\n<p>Tactics used by cybercriminals include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Creating a false sense of urgency to pressure users into sharing personal information or clicking on <a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/information-technology\/security\/ransomware\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">malicious links<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Threatening users with arrest, financial loss or the release of private information if their demands aren\u2019t met.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/information-technology\/service-catalogue\/security-and-access\/cyber-security-awareness-and-training\/phishing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Impersonating a trusted source<\/a> to trick users into sharing personal information or clicking a malicious link.<\/li>\n<li>Manipulating search engine rankings to bump fraudulent sites to the top of search results.<\/li>\n<li>Using pop-up notifications offering prizes or claiming a device has been infected with malware in order to trick users into sharing their information of clicking on a malicious link.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As well as knowing the warning signs for potential scams, Brock ITS advises users to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Verify suspicious or threatening messages by contacting the supposed sender through another trusted method.<\/li>\n<li>Contact an organization directly through a trusted method to confirm requests for personal information are legitimate.<\/li>\n<li>Double check URLs before clicking search results. Users should also hover over a sender\u2019s email address and URLs in a message to check they are legitimate.<\/li>\n<li>Install <a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/information-technology\/security\/antivirus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">antivirus software<\/a> and pop-up blockers on their devices.<\/li>\n<li>Clear cookies and device caches regularly.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/information-technology\/security\/tips-for-securely-working-off-campus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Avoid using public or unsecured Wi-Fi networks<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid clicking links or calling phone numbers provided in pop-ups.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Members of the Brock community can also reach out to ITS with questions or forward suspicious messages to\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:itsecurity@brocku.ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">itsecurity@brocku.ca<\/a>\u00a0for the IT Security team to investigate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brock\u2019s Information Technology Services (ITS) team is sharing tips to help students, faculty and staff recognize strategies used by scammers to steal users\u2019 personal information and money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[54,7],"tags":[5331,7822,8159],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104471"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104471"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104483,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104471\/revisions\/104483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}