You are receiving this message because you have become an unfortunate victim of a spammer who has compromised your student email account. Your password for all of your student accounts has been changed administratively by an authorized staff member in Information Systems or Technology Support. In severe cases where Microsoft has restricted your student email account, an authorized SCCCD Information Systems staff member has removed the restriction. Now we need you to do your part to make your student email account safe again by following these important instructions and recommendations:
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CHOOSE A NEW PASSWORD. District technicians have already changed your password to stop the spammer’s access to your account, but you need change your password again, to something no one else knows. Go to any SCCCD login page and click “Change Password”. If you get stuck, click the “Help Resetting Password” link for detailed instructions.
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CLEAN UP YOUR ACCOUNT. By the time anyone notices an account has been taken over by a spammer, there is almost always an enormous mess to clean up -- thousands, tens of thousands, and possibly even 100 thousand or more messages that must be removed to make your account safe again. Here are some tips:
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UNSUBSCRIBE. Email subscriptions can be useful, but mainly they just fill up your account with messages you don’t have time to read. Every message from a legitimate email sender will have an option to unsubscribe from receiving more messages. The link is usually at the bottom in very small, hard to read text, but it should be there.
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BLOCK. If you are reading this, it’s because somewhere in your inbox, there is at least one message (usually more) from a spammer. Use your instincts – if a message doesn’t look safe, it probably isn’t. But deleting it is not enough. You need to block the sender. Click the “Junk mail” option in the menu bar near the top of your screen. It should give you 3 options – Junk Mail, Phishing, and Block. Select either Phishing or Block, and Microsoft will do the rest to protect you from that sender.
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DELETE EVERYTHING NOT RELATED TO YOUR EDUCATION. You may have already noticed that when your email account is overflowing with thousands of messages, it will not perform as well as it’s supposed to. It’s also very easy for important messages to get lost, misdirected, or accidentally deleted. Try to keep less than 30 messages in your Inbox. When you receive important messages you want to keep, create folders to store them safely and easy to access when you need to.
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GET SOME PROTECTION. Sending thousands of emails through your account is not the only thing spammers can do. They can access every device you use to check your student email. We highly recommend that you start using a program to protect your account, your computer(s), and your mobile devices. If finances are an issue, there are free protection programs available. Research the options you find and decide which program is best for you.