r/NIU • u/darkness693 • 16d ago
Other Question Urgent (sort of)
Hey, I’m making this post because I’m a little confused and slightly panicked over this. I just got this email today telling me to complete a 1089 tax report but I’m a little unsure if I should trust the sender of this. It says financial aid services but that’s usually not what their handle looks like…
I can’t call the office because they’re unfortunately closed on the weekends and I think it’s really bad timing for this to come up now rather than let me know anything during the weekdays. Should I press any links here or is it fake?
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u/darkness693 16d ago
Wait false alarm it was a scammer email lol. This was not a needed post but I guess watch out if anyone’s paying attention to these things.
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u/Fireblaster2001 16d ago
PHISHING EMAIL! DO NOT CLICK!!!
In the future, a thing to check is, expand the sender address. It doesn’t actually come from NIU even though they spoofed the name. It is some sketchy name.
This will happen A LOT. Hundreds of student emails got locked over the summer because the phishing emails cascaded through the inboxes.
NIU isn’t going to send you any important links that say tinyurl either. (And another good way to check safety is to hover your mouse over the link to see the popup saying where it will actually go.)
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u/Frustrated_Erudite 16d ago
It seemed like a scam in every conceivable way but just to be sure, when I got it yesterday I was still moving in so stopped by financial aid to be sure. Glad you didn’t fall for it. Keep these factors in mind when getting emails:
1. Look at the sender’s email information by clicking on the message header on some mobile devices or just looking at it on the computer. Unless it comes from a .gov or .edu domain and is talking about financial aid, it’s a scam.
2. If it’s Gmail or any free email address talking about job offers or items for sale, it’s a scam.
3. If there’s no image in the header for the sender, it’s probably a scam.
4. If you get something that looks like it’s from your bank or other company and it talks about a problem with something to do with your account, put your mouse over any link they give you. DO NOT CLICK! If it reads something other than what the link says, it’s a scam and should be reported to the bank or whatever company you deal with. If it’s the same, still don’t click on it, go to the website, log in and find out if the issue is real and resolve it that way.
5. If there is pressure on time, as in this must be done by the end of business or midnight, so follow the link right away so your account won’t be cancelled/banned/whatever, it’s a scam in probably more than 98% of the time. In that up to 2% chance, you should have previous emails about the issue in your email box.
In all these cases if it arrives to your school email, forward it to abuse@niu.edu. If there is a real company or organization that is being used to lead you to the scam but is unrelated to the scam, go to the company’s website and look for their spoof or abuse email address and forward it to that email. You might save someone less informed.
Have a great night and good job realizing it was fishy, or phishy, and reaching out for help.
OMIS Major at NIU and decades of tech experience pay off.
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u/Teacup690 16d ago
Fake. But a way to always tell is if you click on the financial aid and scholarships office it will show you the actual email address and not the spoof name they want you to see.
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u/Separate-Gur8549 15d ago
If you are worried you can always ask your academic adviser. I did that once last semester when I got a weird one saying my Microsoft account was going to get deleted if I didn’t click the link and “reregister” it or something like that. Long story short she told me it was a scam and to ignore it.
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u/Remote-Respond7056 16d ago
It’s a fake email, you don’t have to worry about this