Reminder about impersonation scam emails

Hi all,

Wanted to send another update about the impersonation effects – as the cybercriminals are not socially distancing from our email.

If you receive a message that appears to be from your dean, department chair, director, etc. – especially really short messages like “Are you available?”, or even just “Free?” or “Available?” – make sure to look at the from address.

These criminals commonly setup GMail accounts with a similar looking address, for example if they were impersonating me they might create an account on GMail like:

“chauvetp.newpaltz.edu@gmail.com” or “chauvetp.newpaltz@gmail.com“.

You should also see the external ‘warning’ banner indicating it is from an external account.

What these criminals are almost always after is to have recipients buy gift cards (with a promise to pay you back when they are out of a meeting, back from a conference, or who knows what post-pandemic excuses they may come up with).

Thanks to those who have been reporting them!

Paul Chauvet, CISSP
Information Security Officer