Safety alert: Do not respond to unsolicited requests for personal information

Over the past two months UAA users have been subjected to more than a dozen phishing attacks in an attempt to gain unauthorized access to username and password credentials. Phishing is a term used to describe someone who attempts to get confidential information from another person by impersonating an official request for information. Today, the UAA IT Call Center is receiving reports that this practice has been transferred to and is being perpetrated via telephone.

In the present case, representatives claiming to be from the IRS and/or the Alaska State Troopers are contacting UAA users. Users are then asked to provide their username/password credentials, as well as Social Security number or other private information, by replying to their survey. One caller posing as law enforcement offered to settle a bogus legal/criminal matter over the phone in exchange for a credit card payment.

The latest reports began yesterday and many of you may have seen these requests. Please understand you should never respond to an unsolicited phone call for your UAA username/password credentials or any other personal information. IT Services will never solicit this information from you in this manner.

If you have received any phone call asking for confidential information, you should treat it as suspect. Our IT Call Center will be happy to discuss these kinds of calls with you to ensure you don't inadvertently give up your electronic identities and risk loss of other personal and confidential information. The IT Call Center can be reached at (907) 786-4646 or (877) 633-3888.

Please remain alert to anyone asking you for personal or private information via email or unsolicited telephone call, regardless of how authentic the caller may seem. Thank you!

November Archive