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Wednesday January 30, 2008 |
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Phishing Email
According to WikiPedia "In computing, phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication." Here is an example of a phishing email sent to an NCCE employee today. Subject: VERIFY YOUR Ncsu EMAIL ACCOUNT NOW Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:04:11 +0000 From: Ncsu Team <ncsuteam@bellsouth.net> Reply-To: accountupgrades03@deleted.com To: undisclosed-recipients:; VERIFY YOUR Ncsu EMAIL ACCOUNT NOW Dear Ncsu Email Account Owner, This message is from Ncsu messaging center to all Ncsu email account owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center. We are deleting all unused Ncsu email 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 a present used account. CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW Email Username : .......... ..... EMAIL Password : ................ Date of Birth : ................. Country or Territory : .......... Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently. Thank you for using Nmn ! Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ Thanks, Ncsu Team Ncsu.edu BETA There are several items in this message that throw up red flags. First among many was the "Ncsu" not being all caps. Most importantly, the fact they are asking for this reply via email and not giving any information such as my id. This one was easy to recognize as a phishing expedition. Many are MUCH better disguised and more cunning. Just be very of anyone asking for your password without you initiating the call. DO NOT click on links in email messages. Go to the web site by typing the URL in your browser and navigate from there. It is very easy to give a link that says it is going one place, but actually takes you someplace else - for example: http://www.google.com/ will actually take you to NCSU's home page. Just be aware that there are bad people out there who prey on the unsuspecting, uninformed and trusting individual. "Let's be careful out there". Posted by jdorner ( Nov 19 2008, 10:42:58 AM EST / Jan 30 2008, 08:39:00 AM EST ) Permalink Comments [0] Trackback: http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/techtalk/entry/phishing_email |