Are you Available? Email scam alert

  Picture by By RRZE (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0

Look out for a scam email described below, it’s very convincing and is a live threat. It appears to come from a colleague in your school/department.

It may have a subject line similar to:

* Are you on Campus?

* Are you Available?

* Free / Are you free?

The scammers mimic who the email is sent from, so it looks like someone your work with. If you reply, they pretend to be your colleague and start an email exchange with you.

Their reply is likely to say something along these lines:

  • they say they are in a meeting, or at a conference etc (so you can’t ring them to check validity)
  • they make their request for your help sound urgent
  • eventually they ask you to buy iTunes or Amazon vouchers for them.

If you get one of these, please delete it.

If you ever have the slightest doubt about the legitimacy of an email, contact us to check it out for you.

If you have responded and bought vouchers, please report it as a crime to Action Fraud

More advice from us about email safety and spotting fakes

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