On Thursday, Feb. 15, GRCC’s Information Technology Security Team sent a warning to students about a phishing scam email that was sent to students two days prior.
The phishing email was sent out, on Tuesday, Feb. 13, to several Grand Rapids Community College students from “hashem@aldaraljameela.com” in reference to an alleged “GRCC Internship Offer.”
The sender expressed that undergraduate students and graduate students were granted a remote internship opportunity announced by the Office of Institutional Research at GRCC and available through the Office of Job Placement and Student Services. It also stated that you must have access to a computer and a stable internet connection.
On Thursday, Feb. 15, GRCC’s IT Security Team alerted students that the scam email was directing students to a Gmail address and not an official GRCC address.
The IT security team wants students to know that they should not share their personal information.
“Attackers take advantage of students who are searching for an internship or job by trying to scam individuals of their banking information, social security number and other sensitive information that should not be shared,” stated the alert from GRCC’s IT Security Team.
The IT security team also wants to let students know that while a sender has been blocked from a domain, others may still try to reach out via other email addresses.
If you happened to receive this email and gave any personal information, the IT security team wants you to contact them immediately at IT_Security_Team@grcc.edu. As well as reporting the email as “phishing” to Gmail by:
- Opening the email
- Clicking on the three ellipses in the upper right corner
- Selecting Report Phishing.
The IT team also offered students a general reminder which is as follows:
- Do not provide or request banking information, SSN, or GRCC/personal account passwords.
- Don’t click any links or download any attachments from any suspicious messages.
- Don’t use your student email for mailing lists.
- Hover over links in emails before clicking them. The real destination can usually be checked in the lower left corner of the page.
- GRCC will never request your username.
