Phishing reminders from WFU Information Systems

March 26, 2024

Phishing scams are emails or other messages that appear to come from a known sender but are actually sent by hackers or other dangerous entities. Phishing emails often ask a user to click on a fraudulent link or request personal information such as a password or banking information.

What you may see:

• The email is personalized with your name as the recipient
• The “from” field contains the name of a Wake Forest professor or student. The email may use the name, title, contact information of the real WFU-affiliated person in the signature and/or in the text of the message. 
• The sending email address may be spoofed. A spoofed email address will look exactly like a real email address. Before sending a reply, always check the reply-to field. Generally, legitimate email from an individual will have matching reply-to and from addresses.

Red flags

• Requests that the recipients share personal information
• Requests to deposit checks and spend or send back some or all of the money 
• Requests for payment, prepaid cards or gift cards
• Request for your credentials

Take action to protect yourself

• Ensure multi-factor authentication is enabled on all of your accounts and don’t repeat passwords.
• View your Wake Forest email in the Gmail web interface or Gmail app on your mobile device to leverage warning banners across suspicious messages.
• Use reputable companies when shopping online.

Do not respond if you are unsure about the content or validity of an email, instead forward the email to the Information Systems Security Team at infosec@wfu.edu for further analysis.

Visit to learn more about recent phishing scams and be sure to contact the Information Systems Security Team at infosec@wfu.edu with questions and concerns.