Purdue University Releases E-mail Scam Alert to Affiliated Organizations

As per the report published by news.uns.purdue.edu on September 1, 2009, ITaP Networks and Security has issued a warning for the Purdue community against an e-mail scam that is said to have been designed by a person who claims to be Purdue University's webmaster.

The e-mail informs the community that Purdue University (PU) is going to change its domain names and therefore, the associated organizations should update their web links. However, the URL given in the e-mail directs the recipient to a fake Purdue home page. In other words, the e-mail takes the recipient to a phishing website pretending to belong to the Purdue University.

Scott Ksander, Executive Director, IT Networks and Security, Purdue University, said that the text of the e-mail seemed to have targeted organizations in the greater Lafayette community, as reported by news.uns.purdue.edu on September 1, 2009. These organizations are either associated to PU or affiliated to Purdue. Ksander further said that the e-mail could be targeted against individuals who were affiliated to the University.

Ksander alienated the rumor surrounding Purdue University that it had no plans of changing domain name or home page to ".com".

He further added that these kinds of phishing scams often try to steal sensitive information by presenting themselves as being sent by a legitimate source.

ITaP Networks and Security has recommended the e-mail recipients that they should reply to the mail or follow the instructions given in therein, instead they should immediately delete the e-mail.

Citing these fake e-mails as example, technical experts at ITaP have tried to draw the attention of students as well as netizens to different methods employed by phishers and other cyber criminals to steal their usernames and passwords.

Moreover, the security experts have revealed that this is not the first time when the students of Purdue University have been targeted by phishers with an e-mail scam. Last year in August 2008, a similar attack not only ended up in phishing off students' personal information but also resulted in installation of malicious codes (or virus) in a number of computers.

Hence, the Purdue University has advised netizens, including students, they should keep themselves updated of the newly evolving phishing scams and other online crimes.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/17/2009