Update 3/19/19:
The impersonation scam attempts are continuing. Please be very wary of any emails that start out with a casual question like “Are you available now” and look closely at the “From:” email address. We are continuing to see reports of scam emails sent from “BigRedID.denison.edu@gmail.com” addresses, but have also seen fake emails from other services like “BigRedID@outlook.com” and other unpredictable patterns. Please see the note below for more information on this scam and how to detect and handle scam emails.
Original Post:
On Wednesday 2/20/19, ITS received reports of scam emails purporting to be from two different department chairs but coming from email addresses that were “BigRedID.denison.edu@gmail.
The scam starts off with a very informal question like “Are you at the office” and, once a response is received, proceeds to request purchase of gift cards and then sharing of the gift card numbers (and therefore the associated money).
ADVICE: When you receive an email, look closely at the FROM address. Does it come from a “denison.edu” address? If “gmail.com” or anything other than “denison.edu” is after the “@” sign, be very suspicious of the email.
If you see the pattern of “BigRedID.denison.edu@gmail.
- Send the message to the ITS Help Desk so that emails to and from the scam email address can be blocked:
Select the 3 vertical dots next to the Reply button and choose “Show Original” and then click the “Copy to Clipboard” button. Compose a new message to “helpdesk@denison.edu” and paste the contents into the message body and send the message. - Report the email as phishing to Google to aid in future detection of scam emails:
In the original email, select the 3 vertical dots next to the Reply button and choose “Report Phishing”.
If you have questions/concerns, please contact the ITS Help Desk at 740-587-6395 or helpdesk@denison.edu