QRÌýScams are yet another type of scam being used to trick people into giving away personal, financial, or other private information.
Below is an actualÌýQRÌýcode scam email seen recently at ¼«ËÙÁùºÏ¹Ù·½ÍøÖ·. Can you spot the five clues that indicate this is a scam? Scroll down for answers.
- Unknown Sender.ÌýIt is from a ¼«ËÙÁùºÏ¹Ù·½ÍøÖ· person you do not know, or are not expecting to hear from.​​​​​​Ìý
- In this case, the phishing email is the result of a hacker gaining access to a Boston College email account, and using that account to send emails to Boston College email addresses found across the web.Ìý
- Sense of Urgency.ÌýIt has an urgent subject, and is prompting you to act quickly.
- Poor grammar and missing punctuation.
- ÌýITS does not send out QR codes to the community.
- Asking for Passwords. The QR codeÌý takes you to a web form with a non-¼«ËÙÁùºÏ¹Ù·½ÍøÖ· web address, that asks for your ¼«ËÙÁùºÏ¹Ù·½ÍøÖ· Portal password.Ìý¼«ËÙÁùºÏ¹Ù·½ÍøÖ· will NEVER ask for a password unless it is on anÌýofficialÌý¼«ËÙÁùºÏ¹Ù·½ÍøÖ· login screen.Ìý
- IMPORTANT: Official login screens always haveÌýbc.eduÌýbefore the first single, forward slash (/), for example:Ìý
If you receive an email you think may be a scam, please forward it toÌýsecurity@bc.edu.
More Resources
- (Federal Trade Commission Consumer Alert)