Instructions for reporting phishing messages to the Technology Help Desk at MHC.
Overview: What is phishing?
Phishing is a cyberscam in which target(s) are contacted by email, telephone or text message by a bad actor pretending to be a legitimate person, office, or institution. The scammer's goal is to to lure you into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information (PII), banking and credit card details, and passwords.
What do I do if I get a phishing message?
If you receive a message that you think is phishing:
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First, check the Phish Bowl to see if it's already been reported to LITS.
- If it isn't in the Phish Bowl yet, please report the message to the Technology Help Desk by forwarding it to helpdesk@mtholyoke.edu.
- If it was a text message phish, please send a screenshot of the message and include the sender's number.
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Then, to help improve Google's email filter that screens for potential phishing messages, report phishing messages to Gmail by following these instructions.
What if the message was already in my SPAM folder?
Don't engage with unexpected messages in your SPAM folder.
The LITS Security Response Team has implemented measures to protect the campus community from phishing emails. This includes screening MHC Google for potential phishing emails and routing them into your spam folder automatically.
For this reason, please don't interact with messages that have been automatically filtered into your SPAM folder unless you find one you've been expecting from a trusted sender.
Phishing messages that are automatically routed to your SPAM folder don't need to be reported to LITS as phishing as our processes have already worked to prevent them from hitting your inbox.
How to mark an email as phishing in Gmail
If you use a desktop email client like Apple Mail or Outlook, you'll need to log into your MHC Google account in a web browser to mark a message as phishing.
- Open the email message by navigating to your inbox on a web browser
- Select the three dots menu to the right of the reply arrow in line with the sender information at the top of the message
- Choose Report Phishing
