Unknown senders, will contact faculty posing as real individuals and make specific inquiries regarding their work or publications
The messages could have subject lines similar to any of the following:
- A question about . . .
- A short note after reading your work
- Curious about your work
What makes this a phishing message?
The scam may not be a direct malicious threat, but the sender's accounts are fake and the goal is to gather data to use in Large Language Models to enhance AI apps.
The deception will allow a faculty's expertise and research to be used without their consent or knowledge.
Tips if Something Seems Off:
UC Berkeley faculty bios, teaching, and research are on our web pages and intended for the public. This can allow very targeted questions.
Always be cautious of unknown senders contacting you directly.
Carefully evaluate the sender
If you didn’t expect it, reject it, or investigate the organization directly through a web search or at their legitimate site to confirm.
Report and/or flag it
- Open the message
- To the right of the 'Reply' arrow select 'More' (typically denoted with three vertical dots)
- Then 'Report phishing'
- For suspicious messages received by text, please take a screen shot and forward the message to phishing@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail) For more information visit https://security.berkeley.edu/resources/phishing
Original Message:
