Safety At Purdue

I have already suggested this in my previous post- so if you have not done it, do it now!

The Purdue Student Security Patrol is a group of specially selected and trained students who offer safe walks to students and staff and also provide extra observation in parking garages and other areas of Purdue’s campus.  Safe walk escorts are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 765-494-SAFE (7233). If at any time of the day, you feel afraid to walk alone to and from your dorms or classes – give them a call!

Purdue University is one of the few Universities in the country which has its own police department. In addition to crime prevention and detection, the Purdue University Police Department partners with the campus community to carry out several programs to foster safety and security on the West Lafayette campus, as well as create an environment conducive to learning, discovery and engagement. Visit them here

The Purdue Student Security Patrol (PSSP) assists the entire police department and campus community in a variety of ways. Some of these support details include athletic events, Elliott Hall of Music events, Parking and Transportation Services and the Safe Walk Program, which is a group of trained students who offer safe walks to students and staff.

This group also provides extra observation in parking garages and other areas of the West Lafayette campus. While on duty, student patrol members carry two-way radios to report vandalism or suspicious activities to the police.

Emergency telephone call boxes are located at almost every street intersection and other strategic locations on the West Lafayette campus. The Emergency Telephone System (ETS) boxes are either painted yellow and marked “Emergency,” or they are black with a light on the front that illuminates the phone. Both styles have a blue light on top of the box for easy identification.

To use the ETS in case of emergency, push the button. The blue light on the box will begin to strobe to provide greater visibility. Within seconds, Purdue Police will answer your call to gather information. Please speak clearly and slowly into the box.

The Purdue police department has a Daily Crime Log which they update regularly. You can access recent crime reports for the week or even go through their archives. Check their page for any incidents before believing in or forwarding any messages.

As you’ll soon learn if you don’t already know, Purdue has a scam email problem. At least once a day, you’ll likely get an email about a professor giving away a piano, a job opportunity paying $300 a day, or who knows what else. These emails should be obvious enough to most students – if you get one, just delete it. While these are obviously annoying, you can think of them as a minor in basic corporate cybersecurity. Please protect your personal information by not responding to unsolicited phone calls, emails, and text messages. There are a number of scams (a dishonest way of soliciting money by deceiving people) targeting students at Purdue lately, including calls from individuals claiming to be immigration and tax officials. Last year, a Chinese student reported being scammed of $335,000 at Purdue!

Some of the more common scams include: 

• Individuals impersonating U.S. Immigration officials and requesting payment to purportedly enable an international student to maintain their visa status.
• Individuals sending intimate pictures of themselves via social media applications (e.g., Snapchat) and then being blackmailed by the recipient, who demands money in exchange for not sharing or distributing those photos.
• Individuals signing leases for off-campus housing and paying a security deposit, only to learn that the lease is forged or fictitious.
• Individuals being told, falsely, that they have an outstanding criminal or arrest warrant.

Tax season in particular is a time of year when scammers attempt to extort money from people or steal identities by pretending to be IRS officials. Students and scholars who have received scam phone calls have reported that their caller ID said the IRS or an immigration office (e.g. SEVP, USCIS) or showed that that the Purdue Police, Lafayette Police, or other local police were calling. If you do not know who is on the line, do not simply assume it is someone from the office identified on your caller ID. Scammers are able to “spoof” these numbers so it appears the call is coming from a government office.

The scammer will often pressure the individual to act immediately. They want the person to act before they have time to think about the situation. If the scammer calls via telephone, they will likely ask the person not to hang up so that the person cannot check out the story for themselves. In “sextortion” scams, the scammer will promise to do something for the individual if the individual does something for them. They will try to make the person feel special and gain their trust, but do not let your guard down and do not do what they ask. The scammer will ask people to pay in very specific ways. Scammers often insist that individuals pay them using wire/money transfers or by purchasing gift cards and then giving them the numbers on the backs of the cards. Some scammers might even send people money, ask them to deposit it and then request a lesser amount back, but the check the scammer sent will ultimately turn out to be fraudulent.

These scammers often request personal information such as social security numbers and credit card information. Government officials do not call, text, or email requesting such personal information. Government officials would never ask you for money or to meet them with gift cards. The IRS would never call individuals regarding their taxes, and USCIS or SEVP would never call you to threaten you with arrest or deportation. If you receive any calls like those described above, simply hang up!  You should also never email your Social Security Number or give it to someone you do not know over the phone.

Here are tips to avoiding scams-

• Never give personal or financial information in response to a request that you didn’t expect. Legitimate organizations won’t call, email or text to ask for personal information, like Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers.
• If you have not committed a crime or don’t know anything about the allegations that you’ve been told you are in trouble for, hang up the phone and block the number. No legitimate authority will ask you to pay money to avoid being in trouble.
• Resist the pressure to act immediately. Even if the number on a caller ID appears legitimate, do not allow the person to convince you to stay on the line. If you do not believe the person is who they say they are, hang up the phone and look up the number for the agency they claimed to be from and call the agency. Scammers may be able to fake the caller ID, but they cannot reroute calls, and you will almost certainly find out that the call you received was not legitimate when you reach the actual agency or organization.
• If someone asks you to pay them with a gift card, it’s a scam 100% of the time. Gift cards are just that: gifts. Never pay for anything, especially an alleged punishment or penalty, with a wire transfer or gift card number. The money is transferred almost immediately, and then it will be gone again almost as fast. Also, never deposit a check and send money back to someone.
• Regarding “sextortion” scams, the safest approach is never to send private or intimate images or videos to anyone — and definitely not to someone you do not know, no matter what they promise in return. Also, do not participate in the recording of private acts, such as during video chat sessions.
• Never pay money if you notice any of these warning signs. If you do pay, scammers will always come up with another expense or violation they will claim you need to pay for, because they know you will comply.

Please refer to the links below for resources and more information:

• Tax Scams/Consumer Alerts – IRS
• Identity Protection: Prevention, Detection and Victim Assistance – IRS
• Identity Theft and Identity Fraud – U.S. Justice Department
• Identity Theft and your Social Security Number – Social Security Administration
• Common Scams and Crimes – U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

If you think you are the victim of a scam or fraud, report it to local law enforcement (either West Lafayette Police Department at 765-775-5200 or the Purdue University Police Department at 765-494-8221) immediately.

Phishing attacks attempt to gain access to your accounts or even scam someone else using the personal information you provide. The attacks are intentionally sneaky and seemingly trustworthy, often appearing to be sent by someone affiliated with Purdue, possibly in your contacts. Be aware that just because an email is from a purdue.edu address does NOT necessarily mean it is legitimate or safe! The most common email phishing scam at Purdue is that of offering a high paying job as a researcher or TA to a professor coming from a purdue.edu email. Phishing scams that seek your credentials are also extremely common.

In fact, in 2018, of the 2.3 billion messages sent to purdue.edu email addresses, 1.4 billion messages were found to be malicious and blocked by Purdue’s Cisco spam filter or the Microsoft Office 365 filter. Be wary of any emails that request you to:

• Provide or confirm personal information (PUID, password/PIN, banking information, phone number)
• Verify your email
• Reset your career account
• Update your MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) method
• Prevent account from being deleted
• Apply for a job as a personal assistant/ TA/ researcher etc.
• Immediately read an important document
• Urgently click a hyperlink that does not lead to a purdue.edu website

Phishing scams should be easy to spot, but sometimes we’re tired, overwhelmed by email, or just not paying attention. Giving up your username and password may seem less risky now that BoilerKey two-factor authentication is in place, but it’s a hassle nonetheless to have your password scrambled when your account gets compromised.

Here’s how to spot a phishing email:

1. Provokes fear or urgency. If the email asks that you act fast to avoid a serious consequence, be suspicious.
2. Asks you to click. If an email says click on a link, move your mouse to hover over it to see where it actually leads. If you even think there’s a problem, don’t click.
3. Uses vague language. If the email is addressed to no one or a generic greeting such as “colleagues” and contains few details, it’s likely a scam.

IT (Information Technology) will NOT ask for your credentials or for you to change your password via email.  You must call the Customer Service Center at (765) 494-4000, visit one of their help desks, or navigate to IT’s website to change your password.

Similarly, the Office of Student Employment does not ask other students or staff to send emails of job offers available across campus. To browse the latest student jobs on campus visit their website.

How can you help prevent the spread of spam and scam messages?

1. Understand what to look for in a malicious message (uses threats or a sense of urgency, asks for credentials, or asks for you to buy something).
2. Report suspicious or malicious emails to the security team, please utilize the Report Message button inside your Outlook client, which can be found in the top banner or by right-clicking an email in Outlook on the web (OWA). You can also report emails directly by forwarding them to abuse@purdue.edu.

Student Of Concern Report — Anyone who is concerned about a student’s behavior is encouraged to report the concern to the Office of the Dean of Students using the Student of Concern Reporting Form. Additional information and resources regarding Student of Concern reporting can be located here.