Fw: Important information about websites impersonating the retired SCAN portal

[Zarrillo, Tracy]

Hi all,

Please see email below from the Symbiota Support Hub about the retired SCAN portal and phishing scams. 

Best,

Tracy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tracy Zarrillo

Assistant Agricultural Scientist 1

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

123 Huntington Street

New Haven, CT 06511

Tracy.Z...@ct.gov

(203) 974-8473 (office)

(203) 654-1541 (cell)

 

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From: Symbiota Support Hub <he...@symbiota.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2026 4:30 PM
To: Zarrillo, Tracy <Tracy.Z...@ct.gov>
Subject: Important information about websites impersonating the retired SCAN portal

 

EXTERNAL EMAIL: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click any links or open any attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.

View in browser March 5, 2026 Dear Symbiota community, This is a public service announcement to the arthropod/insect community. As you may or may not be aware, the SCAN (Symbiota Collections of Arthropods Network) portal was retired and taken offline in 2025 by SCAN leadership. It has come to our attention that the portal’s former web address (scan-bugs dot org) lapsed and was subsequently purchased by a Canadian Casino website. Interestingly, they have maintained many pages that look like the original SCAN portal, likely to drive traffic to their site, with links to other real Symbiota portals intermixed with information about casino gaming. It is possible that this site and the associated email (support [at] scan-bugs dot org) could be used for password phishing or other malicious purposes. It is advised that you immediately discontinue use of scan-bugs dot org. Terrestrial arthropod data in the Symbiota Network can be accessed using Ecdysis. We encourage you to share this message with anyone in your community who may have interacted with one or more of these SCAN “look-alike” websites. The Symbiota Support Hub does not host or administer the SCAN portal or the associated domains, but we are working with SCAN leadership to mitigate the problems.  –The Symbiota Support Hub iDigBio | Symbiota Support Hub University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute Lawrence, KS, United States he...@symbiota.org Learn more about Symbiota: Portals | Events | Resources | What's New? You received this email because you are user of one or more Symbiota portals. Read our Communications FAQ here. Unsubscribe This communication was made possible by U.S. National Science Foundation Award 2027654 and others. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.