Tech Tip of the Week--Safe computing practices are essential to protect your computer and files. This week: “Avoiding Phishing Schemes”.

In the past week, we’ve seen numerous e-mail messages claiming to be from PayPal. With great sincerity, these messages explain that PayPal is working to prevent fraud, and in order to assist them, they instruct the recipient to click on the link, go to the PayPal site, login and update credit card information. One tipoff for some users is that they had never done business with PayPal at all, or if so, not using their Hampshire account. But, even if that isn’t the case for you, you should always exercise caution. Most often, these links do not go to PayPal’s website, but to an anonymous site designed to look like an official PayPal web page.
Real businesses like PayPal, Ebay and banks, have responded to the Phishing threat by telling their customers that they will never ask for personal information in an e-mail. If you question whether such an e-mail may be legitimate, never click the link. Instead, visit the real business website by typing the URL into your web browser yourself.
For more information on other threats to your computing safety, visit THOR: Technical Help Online Resources at http://thor.hampshire.edu and follow the link to Anti-Virus, Spyware and Spam. If you have questions or are concerned that your computer may have been compromised, call or e-mail the Help Desk (x5418 or helpdesk@hampshire.edu) to request assistance.