Phishing scams are attempts by hackers and cybercriminals to steal personal information or hijack computing resources for nefarious purposes. The most common (and most successful) phishing scams are emails that appear to come from a legitimate source (for instance; "Chico Technology Help Desk", your bank, eBay, PayPal) which contain a link that directs you to equally legitimate-looking web pages. These emails almost always ask you to verify some detail about your account by going to this legitimate-looking web page and entering your account credentials or other personally identifiable information.
If you provide personal information on these sites, you risk losses through fraudulent use of your credit cards or bank accounts, even full-blown identity theft. If you give out your Chico username and password, you may be providing easy access to other people’s private information.
No bank or other financial institution, nor Chico State IT Support Services, is going to send this kind of request by email because they know that it's an insecure way to transfer confidential information. These emails and websites are simply fronts for stealing your identity or using your computer's processing power to send spam.
To report a spam or phishing email, you can either click on "Request Service" to the right, or you can forward the spam email to spoof@csuchico.edu.