Suspicious emails as part of a phishing scam have recently been reported to Eastern students and employees, according to an email from the Vice President for Student Affairs Thursday.

Specifically, the scam involves “a check for employment which requires the recipient to return a portion of the payment when the check is cashed,” the email said. The phishing scam impersonates Eastern websites and communications in an attempt to get the user’s password, credit card details, or other sensitive information.

The email from the vice president notes that malicious emails often ask urgently for such information and may have obvious typographical or grammatical errors.

Anyone who receives an email appearing to impersonate an Eastern communication can forward the whole message to phishing@eiu.edu. If anyone believes their Eastern email account has already compromised, they should change their password at password.eiu.edu.

The News staff can be reached at 581-2812 or dennewsdesk@gmail.com.