Email Scam Circulating SCSU, How to Keep Info Safe

ST. CLOUD -- Many of us have fallen victim to an email scam and now in the wake of two recent scams, St. Cloud State University is giving you some tips on how to keep your information safe.

St. Cloud State sent out a notice to all staff and students about two now common scams circulating around campus. Darrin Printy is the IT Security Lead at SCSU. He says, so far, it has only impacted staff and not students.

"In this case, most of them [the scams] are not targeting our students. They used to target our students more when we had our student directory as a public directory on our website. But we know students still may be subject to getting these just because their information is out there."

One scam will look like it's coming from an SCSU employee and it demands you to buy gift cards for a class. Printy says to be sure to look at the email tag and make sure it's "stcloudstate.edu." He says often times the beginning of the email will look legitimate, however, the ending will show it's not an official SCSU email address.

The second scam looks like it's coming from the victim's account. The scammer will demand a Bitcoin fee be paid. If the fee is not paid the scammer claims they have inappropriate pictures from the victim's webcam that they will send to the victim's contact list.

Printy says unfortunately if you've already fallen victim to the scam you typically won't see your money again. However, changing your password on your email and other sites can help protect you in the future.

"It may be a little painful at first to have a new password but we recommend it's a good idea to [remind yourself] hey maybe I haven't changed my password in a while, let's just go through and do that and get them changed over."

Other tips include to never reply to suspicious emails and always be wary of unusual requests. If you have fallen victim to either of these scams and you are an SCSU employee or student, reach out to the university's IT Department.