Recently, there has been an upsurge of UCSB students who are receiving SMS/Text messages impersonating UCSB’s “Information Security & Operations Team”. These text messages threaten that your account is being deactivated. They are not legitimate. 

What to look out for:

Cybercriminals are sending messages to students that claim that their account is at risk of termination. They will ask you to confirm if you have requested the termination of your current school account and ask you to respond.

When responding with a yes, they will prompt you to provide a code that must be provided immediately. It is imperative that you do not provide the code and stop the conversation.

Example of threat text sent to a student:

an example of a suspicious text message reading "Hello This is from the Information & Security Operations team at University of California, Santa Barbara. Could you please confirm if you have requested the termination of your current school email? Kindly reply Yes/No"

How to Stay Safe

  • Ignore suspicious messages and links. Please refer to UCSB’s own website rather than the links that were given to you.
  • Never continue a conversation you didn’t start, especially when receiving emails or text messages. If you did not call, email, or text them, it's likely a scam.
  • Duo/MFA passcodes are never meant to be shared. If anyone asks for that information, that person is trying to gain access to your account without your permission.
  • Protect personal information. UCSB will never send out an email about your account being deactivated, terminated, or your access being removed without a clear & established notification.

Reporting Incidents

If you have questions about anything else, please do not hesitate to contact the Student Help Desk.