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Scam Hits Boston Students Again

Recently, the 'Bank of America' spam mail hit some 'Boston College' students asking them to update their online banking accounts. Ten students became victims of a phishing scam, which pretended to be e-mail from 'Bank of America'. The e-mail had a link that take the recipients to a Web page to enter various kinds of personal information, like bank account number, password, social security number and place of birth, to mother's maiden name.

This type of scam has not happened for the first time at Boston and that is what which is more frightening. It is certain that it won't be the last, for such things happen almost everyday at Boston College and other universities.

Fortunately, the scam was detected on the day the e-mails were dispatched because the personal details sent by the students were redirected to an encoded Russian site. Such technology that sets an alert signal about information coming to an unsecured server is truly a blessing.

However, this phishing e-mail looked authentic because the writers used copyright images and hyperlinks. But there are methods to protect and the IT is always there to address such a problem.

Students worry that the process of isolating irrelevant e-mails to the junk folder could result in loss of important e-mails. But this is not likely to happen as the user can access the junk folder anytime for a potentially important mail. Moreover, there are fewer chances of e-mails being misdirected to junk folders.

Awareness of such scams is crucial. So do not assume that you can't become an easy target and victim. In the opinion of David Escalante, the 'Information Technology services director of policy and security', people at Boston College think that they are too smart to fall a prey; but that is not always true.

A lot of leading U.S. research universities have experienced intrusions on supercomputers. Therefore, universities and college IT departments are balancing between maintaining a secure network and allowing academic transparency. Several educational institutions in U.S. are adopting tough measures, especially with the students.

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» SPAMfighter News - 10/20/2006

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