UAB is fighting a persistent, sophisticated series of phishing attacks against campus inboxes — and students, faculty and staff need to be vigilant. The busy season gives scammers a better chance to catch you off guard with phishing emails — and that means you need to be extra skeptical when you review your inbox.

Over the past week, a number of phishing emails have struck the UAB community, including:

• Offers to apply to be a personal assistant
• Fake emails about your Office 365 account
• Offers for items for sale, such as musical instruments

In most of the emails, you are asked to click a link to fill out a form or enter your credentials. That’s when scammers can get control of your account — and then send emails on your behalf to the rest of campus.

If you get a suspicious email, report it via the Outlook phishing button, or forward it to phishing@uab.edu. If you get prompted for a DUO authentication you didn’t request, don’t click the “accept” button.

Signs of a phishing email can be bad grammar or spelling; URLs that don’t match; suspicious sender addresses; unusual requests; and and urgent or threatening tone.

If you suspect an email is a phish, don’t click its links. Instead, go to a trusted web site if you believe you need to log in to a system.