News: Retirement and Benefits Email Scam Warning

Retirement and Benefits Email Scam Warning

November 17, 2023

UWM’s Office of Information Security has recently discovered a retirement and benefits email scam targeting UWM Staff and Faculty.

From UWM’s Office of Information Security:

The Information Security office has discovered an ongoing email campaign involving “retirement” that targets UWM Staff and Faculty. Individuals receive unsolicited offers for retirement and benefit consultations from attackers that represent themselves as having knowledge of the WRS. The individuals sending these emails are in no way affiliated with the UW-Milwaukee nor the Universities of Wisconsin (UW-System). Institutions across higher ed are receiving these messages.

UWM’s Office of Information Security has prepared a document, included below, that contains examples of the fradulent messages that people have been receiving, along with additional information about this new trend. The unauthorized parties use a variety of techniques to get around our security controls, and some of the messages are getting through.

UWM_Cybersecurity_Retirement_Phishing_Warning_Signs.pdf

If you ever receive a suspicious email or text message please follow these steps recommended by UWM’s Cybersecurity Office:

  • Never click on any links in the email or text message.
  • Never click on any attachments to the email or text message.
  • Never download any attachments from the email or text message.

If you are ever unsure of an email’s legitimacy, please forward it to:

abuse@uwm.edu

This will notify UWM’s information security experts and they can tell you if it’s a scam.

More information about protecting yourself against email scams and phishing may be found on UWM’s Cybersecurity webpage:

https://uwm.edu/technology/cybersecurity/

UWM’s official sources of information about employee benefits and retirement planning may be found on the three UWM Human Resources webpages below:

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