An email scam has recently entered the inboxes of many UT students encouraging them to reactivate their Visa cards in an attempt to prevent fraud. How ironic, a spam email claiming to prevent fraud while trying to steal unsuspecting students' identity.

Although the entire UT population did not receive the frustrating email, 97 percent of polled students did receive this Visa email.

Many students were concerned about receiving this email. In an anonymous poll, students said that they called their parents and banks to determine if the email was legitimate.

According to the poll's comments, students learned that the bank will never send information regarding credit and debit cards electronically. A bank only sends information to the permanent address listed on the account attached to the card.

The email's content wasWhen we receive a notice about a malicious message, OIT adds it to the filter." Andrew Rivers, Senior Security Analyst short, and informed recipients that Visa was trying to prevent fraud. It said that, in order for the Visa card to stay active, a student must reactivate the card by clicking on a link and entering personal information. The poll said that 12.1 percent of students who received this email clicked on the link.

Thankfully, when a student clicks on the link, they are currently redirected to a page sponsored by the Office of Internet and Technology warning students that this is not a trustworthy site.  

OIT offers several layers of protection to detect and block malicious messages. 

"When we receive a notice about a malicious message, OIT adds it to the filter and provides a notice through the Information Security Office's Recent Scam RSS feed," said Andrew Rivers, Senior Security Analyst.

Most students think that OIT is doing a good job of filtering spam and understand it is impossible to catch everything. One student that participated in the poll said, "The way to fix this is for OIT to teach people what spam looks like. If the student body can be educated on spam, it will reduce the amount of students impacted."

In fact, OIT does offer security awareness courses. According to Rivers, in addition to regularly scheduled courses, organizations and campus departments can request additional information sessions.

Other studeThe spam came from a UT email address and I think that is definitely a problem. Maggie McCluney, sophomore in Spanish and international buisinessnts believe that OIT should send out a mass email informing students when their computers are at risk for being spammed.

"The spam came from a UT email address and I think that is definitely a problem. OIT should do something about that," Maggie McCluney, a sophomore in Spanish and international business, said.

OIT does offer advice on their website. The website tells students to "know your machine: be familiar with its users, processes, and files." OIT informs students of recent scams on the website, and provides links for students about scams and internet frauds.