Crime Alerts- Spring 2008

INCIDENT 1

On November 27, 2007 Campus Police Department was notified that a suspicious telephone call was received by a female student late last night at an on campus residence hall.

The caller, described as a male, possibly older, identified himself as working for Maintenance and requested the female student to let him into the residence hall under a pretext of “handing out flyers.”  After being questioned by the student, the male became angry and hung up the phone.  Although Campus Police was immediately called we were unable to obtain additional information. 

Be cognizant of the fact that maintenance staff has NO reason to be let into a building as they have keys.  If, for any reason, you see or hear something suspicious please contact Campus Police at ext 5555. An officer will promptly respond and investigate the situation. 

INCIDENT 2

A second suspicious person, unrelated to the previous Timely Warning sent today, was reported to Campus Police.

The suspect was described as a white male, college age with dark hair.  He entered into several apartments in the Authier / Dufault (6-Men) Residence Halls.  When confronted by residents he rapidly left the area and drove off campus at a high rate of speed. 

Due to the circumstances, it is probable that this incident is related to the theft of several laptop computers (mid September) in the same residence hall.  In order to assist with this on going investigation, call Campus Police ext. 7225 with any information.

Once again, entry into the apartments was made through unlocked doors!  For your safety and security, please lock the doors.

Parking during Spring Break

If you plan to leave your vehicle on campus during spring break we ask that you park it in the Lower Level LLC Deck.   Your cooperation will allow Building & Grounds to clear the lots quickly after a snow storm.

Scam E:mail Alert

The following message was sent by Bob Fry, Director of Information Technology, on June 7, 2006. 

Computer scams continue to proliferate. Our network appliances for filtering such e-mails, viruses, and spam block some 90% of the incoming messages, but you will still receive some scam messages.

College employees continue to report receiving unsolicited e-mails purportedly from legitimate banks and other financial services including Wainwright Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, and eBay urgently requesting personal information from the recipient. Any correspondence of this nature is a scam seeking personal information that might later be used for identity theft.  Delete such messages. Please be aware that, even though legitimate bank marketers may use the Internet for advertising purposes, there is no obligation on the part of consumers to respond on the Internet and they will not ask you to enter personal identifying information through a link to a website.  When in doubt, contact your bank directly by telephone, mail or personally before responding over the Internet. This type of scam is called a phish.

Phish scams usually look official and professional and their reasons for asking for you to contact them sound reasonable.
 
A few guidelines might help protect you. Some of these are taken from the Federal Trade Commission site (http://www.ftc.gov/spam/ <http://www.ftc.gov/spam/> )
 
1.       If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply or click on the link in the message. Legitimate companies don't ask for this information via email. Do not click on a generic e-mail body to a web page to enter personal information. If you have an account with the mailer and are concerned, contact the organization in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company's correct Web address. In any case, don't cut and paste the link in the message into your browser.
 
2.       If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your personal or financial information through an organization's Web site, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browser's status bar or a URL for a website that begins "https:" (the "s" stands for "secure").
 
3.       Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them. If you are not sure, e-mail or call the sender and ask.
 
4.       Report suspicious activity to the FTC. If you get spam that is phishing for information, forward it to spam@uce.gov  and notify the IT Department at helpdesk@assumption.edu.  If you believe you've been scammed and have given out identifying information, file your complaint at www.ftc.gov , and then visit the FTC's Identity Theft Web site at www.consumer.gov/idtheft   to learn how to minimize your risk of damage from the ID theft.