An email claiming to offer a position in a non-existent “Student Empowerment Program” is currently circulating to WIU students and employees. This email is a scam. Do not respond to the email; please mark the email as phishing to help reduce the amount of emails that get delivered to other individuals.

One easy way to tell that the email is not associated with WIU is that it is not sent from a wiu.edu email account. Phishing schemes will often change tactics, email addresses and subject lines in an attempt to avoid detection.

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Tips on how to protect yourself from this scam:

• Never accept a job that requires depositing checks into your account or wiring portions to other individuals or accounts.
• Many of the scammers who send these messages are not native English speakers. Look for poor use of the English language inemails such as incorrect grammar, capitalization, and tenses.
• Verify the authenticity of the source of the email. For example, if the person states they are an employee at WIU, look in the University directory (directory.wiu.edu) for that person and contact them using their publicly listed contact information to verify the accuracy of the communication.
• Forward suspicious emails to phishing-report@wiu.edu

and report to the FBI at https://www.ic3.gov/. Tell

your friends to be on the lookout for the scam.

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If you have been a victim of this scam or any other Internet-related scam that has resulted in a monetary loss, notify WIU’s Office of Public Safety at (309) 298-1949 and you may file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov/.

Regards,

University Technology – Western Illinois University

Support Center: (309) 298-TECH | Stipes Hall 126

wiu.edu/supportcenter