iThenticate account creation notices are legitimate

Information Assurance has received reports about email notices sent recently from "[email protected]" with a subject line of "Account Created." These emails may appear suspicious because they are unsolicited. However, these are legitimate emails about a new service for U-M faculty called iThenticate.

The U-M Office of Research is providing the iThenticate plagiarism detection service to faculty on the Ann Arbor campus. Details are at Plagiarism Detection on the Research Ethics & Compliance website.

These clues can help you determine the legitimacy of the emails:

• The shortened URL provided for more information is an official U-M URL created using U-M's URL shortener. You can tell because it begins with myumi.ch. To reveal the complete URL so you can verify the source, copy and paste it into your browser address bar and add a plus sign at the end (that is, http://myumi.ch/JNdnV+). To learn more about verifying shortened URLs, see Shortened URL Security Tips.
• The contact address provided is a real U-M address. You can check addresses by searching the MCommunity Directory. In this case, an MCommunity Directory search finds a profile for orcr.umor.
• An article about iThenticate and the emails to faculty was published in Michigan Medicine Headlines on March 9, 2017: Faculty Can Use New Tool to Detect Plagiarism.