As students go back to school across the U.S., it’s a good time to prep teachers and staff on cybercrime. With email phishing being a top concern for technology departments, engage people by providing examples of scams that affect employees personally and financially. Below are two scams currently circulating school districts by email:

• The caught-on-camera extortion scam
• The purchase-these-gift-cards scam

Caught-On-Camera Extortion

The first scam is from a stranger and may include personal details like your current or former password. This one threatens the victim with release of embarrassing footage and demands a bitcoin ransom to keep quiet. Including a personal detail like a password makes the scam appear to be legitimate.

Purchase-These-Gift-Cards Scam

In the second scam, the scammer claims to be a person you know and requests a favor to purchase gift cards as soon as possible. They might claim to be unavailable to stop you from confirming the request via phone call. They may even impersonate the known contact’s email address. This scam is a form of phishing–impersonating someone you know and trust in order to influence you to do something. In this case, the “something” is the purchase of hundreds of dollars in gifts cards with a promise of repayment.

These are just two examples of current threats that come through email.

The Lesson?

The lesson here is not to look out for these specific scam scenarios but rather to be wary of any email that asks for something unusual or is unexpected. If money is involved, VERIFY first, even if the person claims to be unavailable like with the gift card scam.

Need more ideas about how to get staff on-track with cyber awareness? Look back at our articles last year.

https://blog.cybersafeworkforce.com/2017/07/25/getting-ready-for-a-new-year/

https://blog.cybersafeworkforce.com/2017/08/08/getting-ready-for-a-new-year-part-2/

https://blog.cybersafeworkforce.com/2017/08/22/getting-ready-for-a-new-year-part-3/