Category: Cyber Security

“GREAT PART TIME JOBS: Personal Assistant, Dog Walker, Car wrap advertising or mystery shopping” is what the email you receive claims; they ask you to cash a check, cashier’s check, money order or an electronically delivered check to cover supplies or any number of reasons. The emails are scams that will cost you time and money.

The checks typically look real, and by the time the bank figures it out, the scammer is gone, and the bank has taken the money from your account. Be very careful of gift cards and digital money apps when working with people you do not personally know.

Unsure if an email is a scam? What to look for in fraud emails:

• They ask you to contact a free email service instead of the organization, that’s a red flag.
• The sender builds urgency so you don’t question the details.
• They spell words in odd ways, such as “Part_time,” or use zeros instead of the letter “o.”
• They send you a picture of text instead of text.
• The job offer sound amazing, little work, amazing employer, no interview and you never asked for it.
• They ask you to send them money via an online money transfer service.
• They email wanting you specifically, but then they ask for your name and email address.

Send potential scam emails to spamreport@wichita.edu. Have additional questions? Contact the information security department at Askinfosec@wichita.edu.

ITS is required to encrypt the local hard drives of university-owned computers in order to maintain compliance with state-mandated security procedures. This has been the standard practice for Windows computers and also needs to be implemented on university-owned Apple computers.

If you are using a university-owned Apple computer, that device will need to be encrypted in order to stay in compliance. To do this, you will be required to enable FileVault on your Apple computer using JAMF/Self Service by Sept. 15.

Failure to comply will result in your device automatically being disabled and locked after Sept. 15.

Instructions for how to encrypt your university-owned Apple computer can be found on the ITS Help Desk webpage under “Additional Resources.”

If you have issues encrypting your computer or to unlock it after Sept. 15, submit a ticket or contact ITS Help Desk at 316-978-4357, option one.

Watch out for email frauds. Unknown senders emailing you unsolicited job offers and requesting that you cash large checks on their behalf are likely scams.

Watch out for the following in fraud emails:

• The sender of the message is not the person offering the job.
• The jobs being promoted are too good to be true, like a personal assistant position who works from home with few responsibilities and large payouts.
• The email address is from a free email service when the job is for a prestigious international organization. Those organizations have their own email address that official emails will be sent from.
• The email will ask that you use a free email service as a “reading test” or a “test of your attentiveness.” This helps them bypass fraud monitoring tools.
• An insistence that conversations are only conducted via email or text, with statements around the inability to meet in person or speak over the phone due to “being busy” or “on travel.”
• A request to cash checks they mailed to you, and a request of you to send them the money back via a cash app like Venmo or PayPal.
• There is no job application or other job paperwork alongside the email.

Never cash checks received from an unknown source. With fake checks, once the bank finds out, they will take the money out of the account.

Suspicious emails that are likely frauds can be emailed to spamreport@wichita.edu.