There have been a large number of phishing attempts over the last few weeks, trying to impersonate video conferencing or virtual meeting websites or services. One of the more common services that is being targeted is the Zoom conferencing services.

If you receive an email that appears to be from Zoom (or another service) or asks you to join a meeting, update your software or account, please be cautious.  While there are many legitimate meetings and uses of these services, these messages could also be phishing attempts.

There are a few things that you can look for, when you receive these messages to ensure that they are the legitimate service.

  • Check the URL provided in the message to ensure that the website is the correct. e. for Zoom, the URL should start with https://zoom.us/ or be a subdomain, such as https://1234.zoom.us.

    • On a PC or an Apple computer, hover over the link to view the actual site the link will take you to (the link the red arrow is pointing to in the example below).

    • On mobile devices, be extra careful, as many apps make it more difficult to see the actual site. Often you can press and hold on the URL in the message, to view actual site the link points to.  If not, you may be able to press and hold the URL to copy the link, then paste it into a text editing app on your device, to view the site details.

If you have questions or think you have responded to a phishing attempt, please contact the ITS Service Desk immediately.