Students Beware: Phishing Scam Affects Minnesota State Colleges, Universities

ST. CLOUD -- St. Cloud State University students are being warned of a scam that is making its way through the Minnesota State colleges and universities system.

A phishing email campaign has affected several students in the Minnesota State system.

What happens is, an email is sent to a student with the subject line, StarID Deactivation, and it tells a student that if  they don't want their StarID deactivated they have to log on to their account through a link provided in the email. The link directs the student to a criminal controlled site that will take their ID and password. Criminals will then use the student's ID and password to steal financial information.

So far no students at SCSU have been affected by the scam. Darrin Printy is the Senior IT Security Program Lead at St. Cloud State University. He says of the accounts that have been hacked at other institutions, the criminals have been changing the student's direct deposit information.

"They'll log in there and change the payroll, direct deposit information, in someone's account and have the check redirected. So a pay check would be redirected from the bank it was suppose to go to, to a bank account that was operating or in control of the bad actors."

If you have received a phishing email, clicked on the link and entered your information, Printy says you'll need to act quickly to protect your information.

"The first thing we always ask them to do is change their password and do it through the normal means, not through a link in an email. So they can go to our website, go to our technology page and change their password for their StarID."

After changing your password, Printy says you'll also want to check your direct deposit information. He says be sure to frequently check it to make sure nothing changes.

Below is a screenshot of a phishing email that was sent to a student at Rochester Community and Technical College. Printy says if it were sent to an SCSU student it would be customized and show St. Cloud State.

If you haven't received an expected direct deposit, or think your account may have been hacked, Printy says to call HuskyTech at 320-308-7000.