Phishing - What to Do Immediately After You Have Clicked a Suspicious Link and/or Fell for a Phishing Scam
If you feel that your UWL account may have been compromised after clicking a suspicious link and/or due to providing your UWL login credentials, then please use the password reset page available at the UWL homepage at https://www.uwlax.edu under the Quicklinks menu or at https://www.uwlax.edu/info/password-reset/ as soon as possible. The sooner you change your password, the greater the chance your UWL email account will not be flagged as a spam account and/or to prevent any other suspicious activity with your account. Here is a password reset help guide called "Password Reset Help" for further assistance with resetting your UWL password.
*A Note about Duo: Our 2-step authentication process called "Duo" will also help prevent others from logging into your UWL accounts even after you have provided your UWL login credentials because the hacker or phisher would also need to have your Duo device in order to fully comprise your account. Thus, it is now less likely for your UWL email account to even become a spam account. For more information about Duo, then please check out our "Duo - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)" KB article.
If you provided any other personal information, like banking account login credentials, credit card numbers, social media login credentials, etc., then please go to those companies' websites directly and change those passwords as soon as possible and/or contact those companies' IT support directly for further assistance.
Other suggested actions to take afterwards:
- Delete the phishing/scam email
- Disengage from any conversations you have had with the malicious sender
- Mark the email as spam/phishing
- Block the malicious sender
- Warn others about the phishing email without forwarding the actual message/link to others so they don't fall for it too
- Report the incident to your local IT professionals
Phishing Educational Videos:
- For future reference, be sure to view the "Don't Click on the Link" video.
- Or check out our newest featured film called: "The Cyber Zone: The Link to Disaster."
Related Information
- Information Security at UWL: https://www.uwlax.edu/its/data-security-and-policies/information-security/