“What were you thinking!” – doesn’t help solve a crime. There is often a culture of blaming fraud victims for their predicament even in less obvious cybercrimes, like falling for an aggressive phone scam or clicking on a well-written phishing email. As a society, we have a strong tendency to focus on something the victim didn’t know or didn’t do, rather than focusing on the criminal and the crime.
Instead of looking at people who lose money due to online fraud as gullible marks, first remember that they are victims. At the end of the day, the person at fault is the criminal.
Please know that, at UTHSC, if you report that you fell for a phish, clicked a link, or gave away your credentials, we won’t blame you. Letting us know as soon as you realize it happened goes greatly to fixing it in a timely manner and securing your information. Remember, it is easier to get a handle on a problem if we know about it 30 minutes after it happened instead of 30 days. Contact the Office of Cybersecurity at abuse@uthsc.edu.