Guard against phone scams

Posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2020

Dear College Community:

Safety and Security Services would like to help the Algonquin College community guard against online and telephone scams. While this type of activity is always possible, the approach of the Fall term may prompt new types of scams aimed at current and prospective students, as well as employees.

There are a number of steps you can take to protect yourself from these types of scams:

• Never give out personal information — passwords, credit-card numbers, banking information or online account details — over the phone or online unless you are speaking with a known and trusted source that you can verify.

• Do not assume that you are speaking with the person whose name appears on your caller ID feature. Increasingly, scammers are using technology to appropriate telephone numbers in order to gain the trust of the person they are calling. To verify a caller’s ID, ask for a number where you can call them back, an employee name and number, and make sure that you can verify this information (a quick internet search of a number often quickly reveals that it has been the source of prior complaints).

•Do not give an unsolicited caller access to your computer or phone. If a caller indicates that you have a security issue with your phone or computer you should hang up and call ITS to verify whether there is an issue with your device.

• Remember that our Registrar’s Office will not reach out to a student for any personal information — Registrar’s Office employees will accept calls that are initiated by a student and only then, after verifying identity, would they require any other information such as program or date of birth etc.). The Registrar’s Office will not ask students for the following information over the phone:

-Social Insurance (SIN) numbers
-Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) details
-banking information of any kind
-usernames or passwords
-“Instant payment”
-immigration information

• The Canadian government has reported a number of coronavirus-related scams being carried out via text, email and phone. You can read more about these scams here.

The most important rule: if in doubt, hang up. If you cannot verify someone’s identity, if you are feeling confused about what they are asking you to do, or if you simply have a feeling that something isn’t quite right, hang up.

If you believe that you have become the victim of a telephone scam, please alert the Ottawa Police Service first, and follow up with Algonquin College Security at via telephone (613-727-4723 ext, 5010) or email security@algonquincollege.com. If you receive an unusual call and are concerned that someone might have been trying to scam you, contact Security and let them know.

Sincerely,
Duane McNair
Vice President, Finance and Administration


Comments

Comments are closed.