ISU students should be on the lookout for a scam that uses mass e-mails asking for personal banking numbers and data.

The scam, called “phishing,” uses forged e-mails that appear to be from legitimate businesses and financial institutions to obtain a person’s confidential identity and banking information.

Mike Bowman, assistant director for Academic Information Technologies at Iowa State, said that although no student has reported a case, phishing e-mails soliciting personal, and often financial, information come to Iowa State.

There is a spam e-mail detection system in place at Iowa State that helps keep unwanted messages, like those involving phishing, out of mailboxes, Bowman said.

Erin Madison, sophomore in aerospace engineering, said she has received e-mails soliciting financial or personal information.

“It asks you to fill out a survey, and eventually they get so personal that you’re giving out something,” Madison said.

Diane Brown, senior information coordinator for facilities and operations at the University of Michigan, said students at the University of Michigan have lost money at the expense of the scam.

The e-mails are more sophisticated than similar scams that have been around in the past. They often contain few typos, familiar logos and shaded backgrounds, which lead people to believe in their authenticity, Brown said.

The information taken from the e-mails could potentially lead to identity theft, she said.

The e-mails usually ask the recipient to help with a software upgrade by clicking on a link to verify personal information. The link brings up a place to fill in boxes with data, including Social Security and bank account numbers. Financial institutions don’t rely on e-mails for communication, Bowman said.

“The bad guys rely on a sense of urgency,” Brown said.

Brown said they are hoping to prevent similar occurrences by better educating people about phishing.

“People need to be aware that there are people who can easily copy official-looking documents,” she said.”When in doubt, don’t give it out.”