Scam Email Imitating Quinnipiac University Sent Out

Quchronicle.com published news on 15th September, 2015 stating that Quinnipiac University (Hamden, Connecticut) account on 8th September, 2015 sent a scam email containing a message which said that the email account almost reached full capacity.

Recipients were asked to click on a link and enter their username and password that fraudsters can employ to access more email accounts or Quinnipiac-linked information like databases of the library.

Quchronicle.com published news on 15th September, 2015 quoting Brian Kelly, Chief Security Information Officer, as saying "this is known as phishing."

Around 9,000 copies of email were sent to Quinnipiac faculty and accounts of students.

Adjunct Professor Barbara Cofrances-Nana was one of the first to receive the email although in this instance, the source of the phishing email is not known. According to the Information Technology department, her email could have been exposed to this scam through another phishing campaign.

Initially, Cofrances-Nana did not realize and therefore fell for the scam. However, she did not take long to notice the scam because she started to receive a plethora of same-worded emails.

Approximately 12 users have clicked on the link till Thursday, 10th September but that does not necessarily imply that all 12 users gave their personal credentials.

Security experts highlight some simple tips to minimize the chances of falling for such kind of phishing emails. They include: firstly, never respond to emails which request personal financial credentials such as in the above mentioned case where the phishing emails asked for username and password of the recipient of the email. Secondly, Universities, banks or e-commerce companies normally personalize emails whereas phishers do not. Phishers often include falsified but sensational messages ("urgent - your account details may have been stolen") as in the above case, the recipient is being informed that his/her email account was nearing to its full capacity to make the recipient react immediately.

Also, if you receive a suspicious email, send it to the spoofed University, organization or Bank (Actually many institutions and organisations have a dedicated email address for reporting such abuses).

Finally, you should install a good quality and updated anti-spam and anti-phishing software on your computer so that unwanted emails do not reach to your email account.

» SPAMfighter News - 9/29/2015