Anti-spoofing measures in Gmail

Gmail Anti-Spoofing Warning Banners

As of August 5, 2024, Gmail may display a warning banner titled “Be careful with this message” when it suspects an email is spoofing a sender from Lewis & Clark College.

Email spoofing occurs when an email is designed to impersonate a legitimate sender, often as part of a phishing attempt. These emails might appear to come from someone at Lewis & Clark or from an external source, but their intent is malicious.

These in-message banners will look something like this.

What to do with phishing messages:

• If you suspect the message is phishing but want to be sure, reach out directly to the person or organization using verified contact information.
• If you confirm the email is spam or phishing, click on the kebab menu (three vertical dots menu in the upper right corner) and select “Report Spam” or “Report Phishing”.
  This will help Google—and therefore L&C—identify the offending message for quarantine.

Be aware of these warning signs of phishing:

The message may have an unusual “From” address or an unusual “Reply-To” address rather than our “@lclark.edu” address. Examples of unusual emails are: fao.lclark.edu@gmail.com | LCPresident@icloud.com | Lewis&Clark@hotmail.com | LCDeanofStudents@yahoo.com

• Phishing messages are often delivered outside normal business hours such as 3 a.m..
• Monthly bills delivered mid cycle.
• The subject line of the email is irrelevant or does not match the message content.
• The email is about something you never requested or a receipt for something you never purchased.
• The message is not personalized. Valid messages from banks and other legitimate sources usually refer to you by name.
• There are grammar or spelling errors.
• The email is asking you to look at compromising or embarrassing pictures of yourself or someone you know.
• The email requests payment to people or organizations via services such as Venmo or Zelle.
• You have an uncomfortable feeling, or it just seems odd or illogical.

When contacting you about financial or other sensitive information, Lewis & Clark will never:

• Ask you to email sensitive personally identifiable information such as a tax return, W-2, or Social Security Number (whole or partial).
• Charge a fee to process a financial aid application (this is a common scam).
• Process payments related to tuition, payroll, or expense reimbursements via cash transfer apps such as Venmo or Zelle.
• Request payment via gift cards.
• Request your password.