From CIT Wiki
Suspicious or "Phishy" Messages
Recently the campus was spammed with a batch of messages like this:
OBERLIN COLLEGE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT Dear Subscriber, We are currently upgrading our database and email account center. We have some problems on our database and it will affect your ObieMail account. We are deleting all unused oberlin.edu account to create more space for new accounts. To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below so that we will know that it's being used presently. In 24 hours, you may not be able to access your Email account. CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW ObieID: ............ Password : ............. Failure to do this will immediately render your email address deactivated from our database. Thank you for your patience!! INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT OBERLIN COLLEGE
These messages did not come from the "Information Technology Support, Oberlin College" (they were sent from a compromised account elsewhere). If CIT needed to get in touch with you about your account, we would send a message signed by a specific and identifiable person within CIT. In addition, such a message would include a link to an oberlin.edu web page instead of asking you to email your personal information. We strive as much as possible to identify email from CIT with a human being instead of "the Oberlin Team" or something like that. This particular message was pretty well done, but of necessity these remain pretty generic. We can't count on bad spelling and grammar to alert us to phony email much longer.
Messages like these are an attempt to get you to send someone off-campus your email password, so they can use your account. What can they do with your email account?
- Use your email account to send other spam messages
- Modify your Oberlin web site (if you have one) to spread infectious files to visitors
- Attempt to log into restricted Library reference material, costing Oberlin access fees
- Attempt to access other College systems, like Blackboard
- Access your bank accounts and other sensitive online information (if you use the same password for those accounts)
Oberlin College CIT will never ask you for your password or email credentials in an email. If you thought this message was "phishy" you were right to be suspicious, and we thank you for not replying to the message. Unfortunately, there is rather little we can do in advance to block attempts like this, so please, remain vigilant. When in doubt, call the Help Desk or email us.
With banking institutions, never reply to such emails, and don't click on the links contained within them. Instead go directly to your Bank's web page and login to your account there. That way you can be much more certain you are actually going where you think you are.
It's worth mentioning that some are starting to see similar tricks being played with cell phones and/or text messaging. Some of the most recent ones request you call a number or send a text message to a particular number to "help the Red Cross" or to "send aid to Myanmar." All they want is the fee you pay to send that message.
Do not reply to phishing messages!
At least one such message "bites back." If you reply to the phisher, telling them just what you think of their activities, the phish site attempts to hack your web browser and infect your system. Details may be found here. Just delete the message and move on, thanks.
A Taxonomy of Phish
- Phish - A form of Spam email intended to fool readers into divulging email account credentials to the sender. In other words, a Phony fishing expedition.
- Spear-fishing - A more directly targeted form of Phishing attempt, using lists of banking customers, college students and employees, and the like. More likely to succeed.
- Whaling - A form of Spear-phishing targeted at CEOs, financial officers, others with access to large bank accounts or other high-value assets that might be compromised.
