A phishing scam has recently surfaced to hook students into providing their GatorLink information.
The scammer, posing as the UF Computing Help Desk, sends a malicious email instructing users to follow a link to change their UF Webmail account information.
A variation of the scam email also included the accurate UF Computing Help Desk contact information to further confuse students.
An alert for the scam was released Monday by UF Information Technology.
UFIT communications manager Tracy Gale said no one from the UF Help Desk can send mass emails to students.
“Nobody at UF will ask for your GatorLink password,” she said.
UFIT releases alerts of phishing scams immediately on social media once they are reported by IT security, Gale said.
Austin Landis, an 18-year-old UF international studies freshman, said it could be easy for students to fall for scams considering how often UF sends out reminders to change passwords.
“I know my passwords are considered weak,” she said. “UF is always trying to make them stronger.”
Gale said there is no way of knowing how many students were affected by the recent scams.
“A university environment has a false sense of security,” she said. “Having strong passwords is a really big help.”
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 1/9/2014 under the headline "Scam emails impersonate UF Help Desk"
Justin Gearhart, a 19-year-old UF forest resources and conservation sophomore, logs into his GatorLink account.
