Protect Your Personal Information from Cyber Criminals

CFU webmail users often receive spam email messages where scammers pose as CFU and ask users to click a link or provide their password. 

CFU will never ask you to provide personal information in an email. If you receive an email appearing to be from CFU that requests personal information it is fraudulent and should be deleted. 

It is important to remain vigilant to protect your personal information from cyber criminals. 

When cyber criminals attempt to trick you into divulging personal information by sending you a fake email posing as a legitimate business or friend it is known as phishing. 

During a phishing attack the criminal will pose as Cedar Falls Utilities and ask you to confirm personal information or ask you to open a malicious attachment that infects your computer with a virus or malware. 

Avoid falling victim to a phishing attempt. Watch out for emails that do the following.

  • Asks you to confirm information - legitimate companies will not ask for your personal information in an email
  • Uses a fake email address - sender is not cfunet.net or cfu.net email but uses variation such as cfu.net.servicemail
  • Entices you to click - directs you to click on phony links that take you to infected web sites
  • Contains spelling and grammatical errors - the verbiage may not make sense or includes glaring errors
  • Includes suspicious attachments - if you aren’t expecting an attachment don’t open it
  • Elicits panic - these emails are designed to make you act quickly and include threats if you don’t follow their instruction

Cyber criminals go to great lengths to make these fraudulent emails look legitimate. When in doubt do not click any links or provide any information. 

Call the company at a known phone number (not one provided within the email) to verify the email’s authenticity. 

If you have questions about an email from Cedar Falls Utilities call the Help Desk at 319-268-5221.

This is an example of a fraudulent email message sent to a customer. CFU will never ask you to provide personal information in an email. If you receive an email like this it should be deleted.

 

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