March 16, 2026
It's March. Tax season is here. And for higher education, it's a perfect storm.
Your financial aid office is buried with FAFSA filings and verification requests. Your business office is scrambling with 1098-T forms and end-of-fiscal-year preparations. Students and parents are anxious about tax implications and financial aid packages. Deadlines are looming across campus. Emails are flying faster than anyone can keep up.
Everyone's head is down, just trying to get through the semester's busiest administrative period.
This isn't news to you, working in higher ed.
But it isn't news to hackers either.
Security researchers consistently see a significant spike in phishing attempts during tax and financial aid season, with March bringing a major increase in tax and tuition-themed scam emails compared to quieter months. These messages aren't dramatic. They're designed to blend in with everyday campus business requests, right when staff, students, and parents are busiest.
That's not coincidence.
That's timing.
Here's what's coming to campus inboxes and four simple ways to make sure your institution isn't the easy target.
The Stressed Campus Ecosystem
Here's what often gets missed:
Hackers aren't just targeting the financial aid or business offices directly.
They're targeting the chaos across the entire campus community.
When tax and financial aid season hits:
Students and parents rush to send sensitive financial documents to the financial aid office.
Staff members in various departments shortcut normal checks to keep up with the volume of requests.
"Just send me the file" replaces usual caution when dealing with student data.
Verification gets skipped because everyone is slammed with administrative tasks.
The whole campus ecosystem speeds up.
And speed is where mistakes happen, especially when handling sensitive student and financial data (FERPA and GLBA implications).
Hackers don't go after calm, methodical institutions. They go after busy ones.
March on campus is busy.
What These Attacks Actually Look Like on Campus
This isn't a movie plot. It's a targeted email that looks exactly like the others in a campus inbox.
A message from "Financial Aid" asking a student or parent to resend tax documents because something didn't come through.
A note from a "vendor" to the business office saying their bank information has changed and needs updating before the next payment run.
A DocuSign request for a "tuition adjustment form" that "needs your signature today" to avoid late fees.
An urgent email from a department head or dean who's traveling and needs help immediately with a financial matter.
None of these feel suspicious to a stressed staff member or anxious student.
They feel like normal campus business in March.
That's why they work.
Why Busy People on Campus Get Caught
This isn't about being careless. It's about being overburdened.
When inboxes are full and deadlines are tight, people don't read carefully. They scan. They assume. They react.
Scammers know this.
Their messages are designed for people who are moving too fast to notice the one detail that's off—the slightly different university domain, the unexpected sender. They don't need you to be reckless. They just need you to be busy.
And in March, everyone in higher ed is.
Four Simple Ways to Not Be the Easy Target on Campus
The good news is you don't need fancy tools or a massive security team to reduce your risk.
You just need a few intentional habits during busy months.
1. Verify Vendor and Direct Deposit Changes by Phone
If an email says a vendor's banking details or a staff member's direct deposit information has changed, don't reply to the message. Call a trusted number for that vendor or the employee directly and confirm it verbally. This single habit prevents expensive redirect scams.
2. Slow Down Requests for Sensitive Student and Staff Information
Urgency should be a signal to pause, not to rush. If someone asks for W-2s, tax documents, or student financial files "right now," take a moment to verify first. The real sender won't mind a short delay to protect data privacy. A scammer will.
3. Confirm "Urgent" Requests Through a Second Channel
If an email claims something is urgent from a supervisor or another department, verify it another way. A quick call, text, or internal message (like Microsoft Teams) can stop a bad decision before it starts. Real urgency can survive a two-minute check. Fake urgency can't.
4. Give Your Campus Community a Heads-Up
This week, remind staff, students, and faculty that tax and financial aid season is prime time for scams. Tell them it's okay to slow down, double-check, and ask the IT security team questions when something feels off. That small permission shift can prevent a lot of data breaches and financial losses later.
The Takeaway
Tax and financial aid season is stressful enough on campus without adding "fell for a scam" to the list.
The attacks that show up this month aren't especially clever. They're just well-timed.
They rely on people being rushed. They rely on assumptions. They rely on everyone trying to power through the semester's administrative peak.
You don't have to overhaul your campus systems to avoid becoming the easy target. You just have to help your community slow down when it matters and verify when things feel urgent.
That's often enough.
A Quick Busy-Season Sanity Check
Your institution may already have good habits and security awareness in place, and if it does, that's great.
But if tax and financial aid season tends to push everyone into reactive mode, or you're not sure how your departments handle urgent requests under pressure, it may be worth a quick sanity check with a free 15-minute discovery call.
No scare tactics. No pressure. Just a clear look at whether small habits could prevent big headaches this time of year on campus.
If this doesn't sound like your institution, feel free to forward it to a colleague at another campus who might benefit.
