Anyone can be scammed; regardless of age, ethnicity, education, or gender. And as such, John Jay and CUNY students are no exception. 

The Interim Vice President, Ellen Hartigan sent out an email on Wednesday afternoon, with “Recommended User Action,” to avoid potential phishing scams. The message includes a list of do’s and don’ts when checking your emails. 

This comes after several students received emails that contained an offer of employment or a link asking them to verify their account. Some emails have come from John Jay or CUNY accounts, such as “Financial Aid” providing a link to pay their tuition bill; making it harder to verify the source. 

In May 2019, there was an increase in the number of phishing or scam emails sent to John Jay and it’s community members. To protect students and avoid the threats, all emails received from off campus included a warning banner. 

To further protect privacy, content in the messages were blocked and only re-enabled when the recipient acknowledged that it came from a trusted sender. 

According to VP Hartigan’s email, “Sometimes the message is sent from a CUNY email address whose account has been compromised, or references a CUNY ‘job placement’ office, to lend ‘legitimacy’ to the email.”

In that case students are asked to contact the institution or office directly and remember that official communications should not solicit personal information by email. 

Using the same password for multiple services and accounts can leave people more vulnerable to attacks. Therefore, changing passwords is recommended if you suspect any of your accounts have been compromised.

Suspicious emails should be forwarded to [email protected]. If by any chance you have unknowingly provided your username and password to a malicious site, contact the DoIT helpdesk at 212-237-8200 or by email at [email protected]. 

To keep everyone safe and informed, VP Hartigan urged students to complete a 40-minute information security awareness training located at security.cuny.edu.