Financial Email Scam Targets Faculty Members

Stanford’s Information Security Office (ISO) is alerting the community about a new email scam that is primarily targeting faculty members. The scam involves emails from imposter addresses that try to trick you into sharing your personal or financial information with a fake identity.

Here’s how it works:

The scammer pretends to be a colleague or acquaintance. They’ll use the name of a real Stanford faculty member you may know, but it looks like it’s sent from a personal email account. For example, it might be a hotmail.com address, rather than a work-related stanford.edu account.
To build trust, the imposter initiates a casual conversation. They might share a personal story about a health issue or ask you how you’re doing.
Eventually, the imposter will steer the conversation towards financial matters.

The ultimate goal

While we haven’t yet seen the final phase of this scam, presumably the scammer’s ultimate goal is financial gain. They may try to phish for personal information or convince you to send money under the guise of a phony investment scheme.

What you can do

Carefully check the email address of the sender. Be wary when receiving emails that look like they’re from members of the Stanford community, but are sent from personal-looking email accounts. Additionally, if a familiar business associate is using a novel email account, take extra caution. If it seems suspicious, do not reply! Instead, verify by contacting the sender with a new message sent to their official stanford.edu email address or pick up the phone and give them a ring.
Use the Report Phishing button. If you suspect a phishing attempt, use the Report Phishing button in Outlook or forward the email to phishing@stanford.edu.
Never provide financial information. Don’t provide credit card, bank account, cryptocurrency or other financial details in response to these emails.
Report the attack. If you have encountered this scam and shared personal information, been introduced to another individual through this contact, or acted on any financial instructions they provided, submit a HelpSU ticket as soon as possible so ISO can assist you with remediation.