Phishing Campaign Strikes University of Toledo

Independentcollegian.com reported on 10th September, 2014 stating that usage of the age-old technique of phishing by scammers are evolving and they have lately targeted the University of Toledo (UT) based in Toledo, Ohio, United States.

The latest form of social engineering or phishing seems to target both staff and students through email since last few months of 2014.

Independentcollegian.com reported on 10th September, 2014 quoting Dave Cutri, Director of Internal Audit, University of Toledo as saying "phishing scam can take multiple forms."

Cutri said that it can be defined as an email received by you from some stranger pretending to be someone you know but actually they are not.

Cutri said that they often pretend to be IT department claiming to upgrade and need your username and password to do the updates.

Independentcollegian.com reported on 10th September, 2014 quoting Matthew Junod, Information Security Officer and Manager of UT, as saying "often phishing scams related to UT are from overseas sources pretending to be from financial department or offering job."

Phishing scams are not new to Toledo or online world.

The University of Toledo claimed to have not requested personal information via email and advised to contact Help desk at X-2400 on all campuses in case of any problem with your email or UTAD account.

Cutri advises students of many ways of protecting themselves from phishing.

They include: Firstly, these emails may be common like "University Student" or "Email User" and sometimes with no greetings at all.

Secondly, you may see urgency in these emails with language used seeking immediate response without thinking.

Thirdly, if a user is able to identify a phishing email he is suggested to forward it to the University of Toledo IT Department and then delete them from their inbox.

Finally, it is not only University of Toledo which has fallen for phishing scams of late as during August 2014, the University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, US, also became an unfortunate victim of phishing when several students received an email from the "help desk" asking them to click on a link and fill their online data to update their account.

» SPAMfighter News - 9/18/2014