During the past few weeks, there has been a rising number of email scams that impersonate a senior staff, department head or even the President to trick our staff into buying gift cards from online store.
Here are the sample cases we have captured:
The phishers often start with a greeting message using words like “Urgent”, “ASAP”, etc. to create a sense of urgency. The PolyU logo is used as the signature to make the emails look more legitimate. If you reply to the greeting message (sample 1), they will further ask you to get some gift cards for them (sample 2).
If you receive similar message, ignore it and DO NOT respond to the message.
Check the sender email carefully
A familiar sender display name does not mean the email is legitimate. If the email appears to be sent from your senior colleague but is coming from a non-PolyU email address, you should be extra vigilant.Please also note that many mail applications on mobile will only show the sender’s display name while hiding the email address by default. Therefore, you are advised to check the sender’s address with an extra click on the display name.
For enquiries or to report gift card scams, please contact the IT HelpCentre (Tel: 2766 5900, WhatsApp/WeChat: 6577 9669).
