Retirement planning email

Patrick McGee, Office of Information Security
January 19, 2024

Many Clemson University employees recently received an email like the one below. It encourages the recipient to follow a link and sign up for a session to help plan their retirement.

Clemson Human Resources has verified that this is not a legitimate email from the SC Benefits program, which handles our state retirements. There is a disclaimer in the email that says their representatives are independent and not state or university employees.

There are also several indicators in this email showing that it is not an official Clemson correspondence:

• The sender’s email address is not “.edu” or “sc.gov”
• The greeting is generic and doesn’t use your name.
• The External Sender banner is displayed, meaning that it is coming from an outside source.

Be aware that if you respond to this email, you will be dealing with a non-Clemson entity, and you should exercise extreme caution about sharing any personal or financial information.