CIS has been notified by a number of faculty and staff members who have received messages that appear to come from supervisors or colleagues. The email will urgently request that the individual purchase a gift card (Walmart, iTunes, etc.). The scammers typically use an external email address such as supervisors.name@gmail.com, instead of a TC email address. 

The scammer will request that the gift card numbers and pin need to be emailed or texted to the supervisor. These scammers do their research to get the name of the boss and details of his/her employees. Tracing their source is very difficult. 

Below is an actual email received by multiple people at TC: 

“I’m in a meeting right now and that's why i'm contacting you through here. I should have call you, but phone is not allowed to be use during the meeting. I don't know when the meeting will be rounding up, And i want you to help me out on something very important right away.” 

Never comply with a request like this and always confirm either in person or with a phone call with the supervisor to make sure this is not a scam. 

Please report any suspicious emails to the CIS Service Desk. If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact the TC Service Desk at x3300 or servicedesk@tc.columbia.edu.