Skip to main content

Change coming to ‘External Email - Use Caution’ email alert

IT Services will soon be implementing a change to better help identify when an email is sent from someone outside of ÃÈÃÃÉçÇø or Durham College (DC) or, to help flag fraudulent emails.

Effective Wednesday, December 13, the current ‘Use Caution’ alert shown here:

[EXTERNAL EMAIL - USE CAUTION]

will look like this:

[EXTERNAL EMAIL - USE CAUTION. This email is not from Durham College or Ontario Tech. Do not click links, open attachments, or reply, unless you recognize the sender's email address and know the content is safe!]

This alert is designed to draw your attention to emails sent from outside of our organization as it is becoming increasingly common for fraudsters to send emails that appear to come from internal employees.

These emails will usually include requests, such as purchasing gift cards, paying an invoice, updating banking info, clicking on a link to update some information or entering a draw where you’re asked to provide your ID and password. Emails like this can look authentic and it’s very easy to mistake them as legitimate, but the ‘Use Caution’ alert will help you spot them. Even if an email looks legitimate and doesn’t include the ‘Use Caution’ alert, it’s always best to connect with the sender via phone or electronic chat to confirm their identity.

Please note that emails from Ontario Tech or DC students (emails ending in ontariotechu.net or dcmail.ca) will not display the ‘Use Caution’ clause. 

If you have any questions, please contact the IT ServiceDesk at servicedesk@dc-ot.ca or 905.721.3333.