Students have been warned to ignore fake scam emails from university finance departments about bursaries in a bid to trick them out of the money.
The emails are a part of a ‘phishing’ scam – meaning they look like legitimate emails, using the same font and official logos to look realistic. However, these emails trick the recipient into revealing sensitive financial information. According to website MoneySavingExpert.com, in one case, a student of Queen Mary University, London lost £300. The website said students from the University of Glasgow have also been warned to be aware.
These ‘pishing’ emails look realistic, often claiming to be from university finance departments and different fraudsters use several variations of the scam to outwit victims. Victims believe they are legitimate because they use the official university and bank logos – but they are actually a clever fake. Victims are prompted to click a link to a form, which then asks for information about the debit card and national insurance number. Some even ask banking security questions and passwords. Fraudsters can drain money from their bank accounts in just a few minutes once people reveal their banking details.
QMUL in a statement said: ‘We were made aware late last week that a number of QMUL students had received these phishing emails. QMUL proactively monitors its systems to prevent and detect breaches, and there is no evidence to suggest any system has been compromised in this instance. A message was sent to all students warning them about the scam and providing them with advice on how they can protect themselves online, including details of our cyber security training courses.’
The University of Glasgow sent a (real) email to students writing, the university would never ask for banking information in this way. ‘As soon as we became aware of this scam we advised students to ignore the email. The university would never ask for personal banking information in this way and we urge all of our students to exercise caution when online’, a university spokesman said.
