Phishing Scam Attacked OSU Faculty and Staff

Faculty and staff at Oklahoma State University (OSU) are receiving phishing e-mails and calls from cyber crooks in the guise of American Express Credit Card, and being questioned over private information related to their OSU purchase card, or P-card, as reported in the ocolly website on March 1, 2012.

P-card was in the form of company charge card permit goods and services to be obtained without utilizing a traditional purchasing process. OSU's P-cards officially are not associated with American Express, claimed OSU Communications Director, Gary Shutt, in a statement published in ocolly.com on March 1, 2012.

However, Shutt affirmed of no money being lost due to these attempts as all the account-related activities are tracked automatically.

According to him, fake companies often makes these types of e-mails or calls, in the guise of phishing schemes add on access of all confidential information for theft purpose.

Shutt also acclaimed that in an large organizations like OSU, these kinds of phishing attempt are often being confronted.

Officials at OSU IT commented that it is due to phishing schemes of the aforementioned kinds that phishing as a whole across the world is rolling. Their comment is supported by stats released by security firm, Symantec's intelligence report for February 2012, according to which, the global phishing rate increased to 0.01% points, taking the global mean rate to one in 358.1 e-mails (0.28%) that comprised some form of phishing attack. In fact, as highlighted by the Company's report, phishing levels in the US reached one in 753.5 in February 2012.

Hence, to ease the probability for falling of such phishing scams, officials at OSU, recommended card users to follow the following tips of phishing: firstly, always be unconvinced of any e-mail asking for personal or financial information. Secondly, do not click on links within e-mails if the e-mail's recipient suspects its genuineness. Moreover, send reports of suspected OSU e-mails abuse@osu.edu and supposed phishing e-mails to report-phish@osu.edu, added the officials.

Moreover, this is not the first time that OSU has been under surveillance by phishes. Back in November 2010, phishing e-mails from sources purporting to be from some office related to "Ohio State Technical Support" also popped up, claiming to need information about something involving the recipient's OSU username or e-mail account.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 3/12/2012