Overview

How to determine what is a legitimate email vs what is a phishing attempt. 

Details

Phishing emails are scams that attempt to disguise themselves as legitimate emails in order to steal private information from users who respond to the phishing emails. 

FAQ

What are the signs of a phishing email?

• Phishing emails are sent from a public email domain.

  • Not from “username@gustavus.edu”.

• Phishing emails have domain names that are misspelled.

• Phishing emails are typically poorly written with incorrect grammar and misspellings and messages that try to create a sense of urgency.

• Phishing emails include infected attachments.

• Phishing emails include suspicious links to malicious websites that may appear as login pages that you recognize such as the Gustavus Sign On page, Google Sign On page, or your bank's or credit card's Sign On page. If you sign in to these malicious sites, you are providing your account username and password to the bad actors. 

• Phishing emails ask for your passwords.

  • GTS will never ask you for your password.

What are some signs of legitimate emails?

• Legitimate emails don’t request your sensitive information via email.

• Legitimate emails usually call you by your name.

• Legitimate emails don’t force you to their website.

• Legitimate emails don’t send unsolicited attachments.

• Legitimate emails' links match legitimate URLs.

Contact us

If you need further assistance, please contact us at helpline@gustavus.edu or call us at 507-933-6111.