On Nov. 6, students received two different emails from Chief Anthony Morgan of Public Safety.
The subject line of the first email read “Holiday Opportunity” and raised a charitable opportunity with a motivating reward: a waived parking ticket.
This holiday season from Nov. 11-21, “any student may have one parking ticket waived with a Toys for Tots donation.” During this period, students can bring an eligible new toy or new set of books to the Public Safety office in exchange for the waiving of one previously acquired parking ticket. While this ticket waive will apply to most parking violations, it will not apply to any accessible space violations.
Donations must be new, un-wrapped and preferably around the $20 to $25 price range. Children will receive two toys each, and three books count as one gift.
The other email that students and the campus community received was regarding a recent email security issue. Some members of the campus community received an email about “free musical items” being given away, the sender of which aiming to gain access to the accounts of anyone that interacted with the email or listed a phone number.
This is the second time this concern has affected the campus community, with the first scam email sent out in late October. Public Safety contacted affected students on Oct. 21 to let them know that the matter was being investigated and warning them not to interact with this suspicious email in any way.
While the scam email has since been removed from the inboxes of the campus community, Chief Morgan shared the original message in his Nov. 6 email, which reads as follows:
“Hello,
Mrs. Carrie is making arrangements to relocate and looking to give away Her late Husband’s Music instruments to students/staff interested in any of the instruments listed below as she is travelling out of states soon. The instruments are
* Violin – (Yamaha AV7-44SG),
* Camera – (Leica S (TyR 006) Digital SLR Camera),
* PIANO ( 2014 steinways and sons Foldable legs (Can fit in door size),
* Guitar – (Eric Clapton’s Martin OOO-42),
* Drone – (Mavic Quadcopter),
* Keyboard – (Roland D-50).
You can indicate your interest to Mrs.Carrie by Texting via her private phone number (deleted) only if you are capable of making the delivery fees for the item. As the item awaits you to send address and shipping fee to Mrs. Carrie so she consults her movers to deliver the items to your listed address
NOTE: THE ITEMS ARE FREE
NO PICKUP OPTION DUE TO HER CURRENT SITUATION
REQUIREMENTS: SHIPPING FEE RANGING $100 – $500 DEPENDING ON YOUR LOCATION
MRS CARRIE PHONE NUMBER IS (deleted)”
The email has been sent using various names, but because the sender utilizes a Bucknell account to send these emails, they are able to reach the larger campus community. Chief Morgan warns that, “unfortunately, this may not be the last time this sort of email is sent out from a Bucknell account.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, we want to make sure no one communicates with the phone number in the email that went out tonight,” wrote Morgan. “If you ever have any questions about any emails you receive, please contact Public Safety or Information and Technology to verify the message’s authenticity.”
