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Phishing Email Internship Scam (Security Alert)

March 3, 2026

It has come to our attention that several students have received and possibly replied to a phishing/scam email circulating in OCC student mailboxes and even some texts. We are working to clean and quarantine the email messages as quickly as they come in but it is possible that you may encounter one of these messages. The messages may come from different senders but many of them have a subject lines of "Oaklandcc General System Email Account Verification" and other variants include the date or have a subject of Account Notice — Action Needed or PT Remote Admin Asst. The email may request personal information. These messages are a scam and not from OCC staff. Please report these messages as phishing by clicking on the three dots in the upper right corner of the message and selecting “Report phishing” and then delete the message. Here are a couple of red flags to look out for to avoid falling for a scam email or text:

  • The email is from a sender that does not have an email address ending in @oaklandcc.edu. All official communication will come from an oaklandcc.edu email address.
  • The email asks you to reply with personal information. OCC will never ask you for personal information in an email.
  • OCC will never send you a request to pay for anything in gift cards.
  • An OCC staff or faculty member will never ask you to send information to an email address that does not end in @oaklandcc.edu. 
  • OCC will never ask you for your Okta code in a form or by text message.
  • OCC will never ask you for account information in a form.
  • OCC will never ask you for your password.

Some students are even reporting receiving text messages threatening that their account is going to be deactivated if they do not respond.

If you receive a message that seems suspicious, please report using the phishing report button. This helps our email security system properly classify and remove the message from other mailboxes. If you are unsure about an email please reach out to the Student Technical Helpdesk for assistance. Also, if you forward your email from your student account to your personal email, be aware that the message may be forwarded to your personal email before it is remediated by our email security system.