Dear Colleagues,

Due to a recent influx of people receiving, clicking on, and answering phishing attempts, ITS would like to remind everyone to act responsibly when dealing with email – especially email that comes from outside LBCCD.

Imposter Scams

Billions of dollars are lost each year to imposter scams. To protect ourselves from falling victim to one, we must remain particularly diligent. Please remember that:

1. No one at LBCCD should use a non-district account for work-related business. This is especially important for those in positions of authority as people are more apt to respond to a manager’s request.
2. Everyone must be highly critical of external emails that appear to come from colleagues and ask or offer to trade, sell, or give away items.

If you should ever receive an email from an external address that appears to be from an LBCCD colleague, please:

1. Contact the named colleague directly through official channels (work phone, @lbcc.edu email address, etc.) to inform them about the external email, and
2. Forward the original email to reportaphish@lbcc.edu so that it may be dealt with promptly. 

Reporting emails of this type is crucial because most responses to phishing attacks come from staff answering imposter scams.

As you are all aware, messages that do not come from @lbcc.edu accounts are easy to identify, even on your phone, by the following message at the top:

Fallen Victim to Internet Fraud?

If you have fallen victim to internet fraud in California, you should contact one of the following agencies:

• Your local law enforcement agency
• Your local High Crimes Task Force, or
• The Attorney General’s eCrime Unit.

Furthermore, the FBI encourages all victims of Internet fraud to contact The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

Protect Your Password

ITS would be remiss if it didn’t remind everyone that AR 6006 specifically prohibits the sharing of your password with anyone, including your superiors, your colleagues, those who may report to you, or even ITS.

 

If you have any questions regarding this or any other previous advisory, please feel free to email the Office of Information Security.