CCIT News and Notices

There is a growing number of scams on Snapchat targeting Clemson University students.

These scams typically start with cybercriminals gaining access to someone’s Clemson.edu email account. They then use that compromised email account to either access an existing Snapchat account or create a new Snapchat account if one doesn’t exist.

Cybercriminals will then use the Clemson.edu Snapchat account to post malicious content. With that compromised account, they can even target specific Clemson groups and channels that are normally restricted to only those with a Clemson.edu Snapchat account.

These scam Snapchat posts can include things like selling football tickets, student job offers and money scams. They may look even more believable because they appear to be from a Clemson.edu user.

Here are some tips to help avoid falling for these Snapchat scams:

• Contact the poster yourself through a reliable source, such as the Clemson online directory, to verify any offer.
  
• Keep in mind that Clemson faculty will not typically reach out to students with internship or job offers in this manner.
  
• Avoid any offer that seems too good to be true.
  
• Pay nothing – a legitimate job recruiter or employer will never require payment for a job opportunity or ask to send money for equipment.
  
• Don’t give away sensitive personal information like your name, Social Security number or financial information.
  
• If your Clemson.edu email account ever becomes compromised, and your password is reset by CCIT, check social media for any accounts associated with your Clemson email to verify they haven’t been used for anything nefarious.
  

Example of Snapchat scam posts:

The ClickFix scam, also called the Copy to Fix scam, has become the primary technique used by cybercriminals, even surpassing conventional phishing emails. The scam is a social engineering attack that tricks users into pasting harmful code into their computer.

The scam may appear as a pop-up on a webpage, in a Word document, or when you open a PDF. It claims there’s a problem and offers a button labeled “How to Fix,” “Auto-Fix,” or something similar.

If you follow the instructions, the button may secretly copy harmful code to your computer’s clipboard. The page then walks you through opening a system tool, like the Run dialog on Windows or Terminal on a Mac, and pasting and running the code. Once run, the code can download malware and lead to other harmful activities.

Because you copy and paste the code yourself, antivirus software may not detect it before it runs.

If you see this kind of pop-up, don’t follow its instructions. Contact your area’s IT Consultant for help. Legitimate security checks and error fixes will never ask you to run system commands manually.

Because of the recent security incident involving Instructure, the parent company of the Canvas Learning Management System, users should be extra cautious about phishing emails. Clemson University uses Canvas, so we may be at a higher risk of targeting.

Targeted Phishing emails are highly personalized cyberattacks that use collected, detailed information about a person to craft emails that are potentially more detailed and convincing. These types of targeted phishing campaigns often follow major cybersecurity events.

The Instructure company has reached an agreement with the hackers for the return and destruction of any stolen data, but users should still exercise additional caution with emails.

Some of the ways to avoid falling for a phishing email are:

• Carefully check the sender’s name and email address
• Beware of requests for immediate action
• Look for grammatical and spelling errors
• Be careful of website links in an email
• Avoid opening email attachments

If you do get a suspicious email or even one that you are not sure about, simply submit it to the Clemson Cybersecurity Team for review by using the Report button in Outlook or forwarding it to phishing@clemson.edu. Additional information is available on the Reporting Phishing Emails webpage.