Phishing scams are typically fraudulent email messages appearing to come from legitimate enterprises (e.g., your university, your Internet service provider, your bank, eBay, etc.). These messages urge you either to reply with your user name and password or to click on a hyperlink that takes you to a bogus website where you are asked to input private information (e.g., password, credit card, or other account updates). The perpetrators then use this private information to commit identity theft.
To avoid phishing scams, never click the links provided within these types of email messages. If you feel the message may be legitimate, go directly to the company's web site (i.e., type the real URL into your browser) or contact the company to see if you really do need to take the action described in the email message. Delete the email message from your inbox, and then empty it from the deleted items folder to avoid accidentally accessing the website.
Report phishing and spam to security@case.edu .