Jennifer Kitzmann
Staff Writer
A recent increase in the number of e-mail scams requesting personal financial information getting through the University Web mail system has become a source of concern for the campus community.
Don Pollock, professor of communications, said he received a message apparently from Citibank that someone tried to access his account internationally and would close his account unless he sent his account information online.
Luckily, Pollock was sensitive to the issue, having had a similar problem several years ago.
He did not give out any information and was later contacted by the Office of Information Technology that this was a scam.
“Most spoofed e-mails are caught by the anti-spam system and removed before ever getting to the University e-mail accounts, but some do slip through,” said Clive Houston-Brown, chief information officer for OIT.
“No one has been (seriously) affected by this (recent) scam,” he said.
“The only time someone is affected is if they follow the instructions in the scammer’s e-mail and send personal and financial information,” he added. “This is something you should never do via e-mail or over an unsecured Web site.”
Houston-Brown referred to a Web site for the Anti-Phising Working Group, and is essentially a global law enforcement group that tries to wipe out Internet scams and frauds, know as phishers.
“The phished (or fraudulent) e-mails look like pop–ups that alert customers to update or check their account using phony e-mails mimicking the actual business’ Web site, linking you to the scammer’s Web site, requesting personal account information,” Houston-Brown said.
Houston-Brown also said that APWG reports that these spoofed e-mails use fraudulent Web sites, stolen logos and look alike site graphics that are designed to fool recipients into giving out their credit card numbers, social security numbers and security codes.
The APWG Web site warns e-mail users to be suspicious of any e-mail that has an “urgent” message or asks to update your financial information.
E-mail with these and other gimmicks are usually signs that the e-mail is a scam.
Houston-Brown said the vast majority of people see these e-mails as scams.
Suspicious messages begin with something like: “Dear Bank Customer.”
In addition, it usually requests personal financial information as well as regular updates and verification of users’ accounts.
“OIT has switched to one of the best anti-spam and e-mail anti-virus solutions called the Proof Point Protection Server Solution,” said Wayne Lai, the University’s assistant network security administrator.
Lai handles the e-mail anti-virus and anti-spam systems for the campus.
Lai said that the Proof Point system has caught more than 22,000 bank fraud e-mails, keeping them from getting through to in the past 30 days.
Unfortunately, the experts say, no anti-spam system can keep up with the rapid pace of new bank fraud e-mail variations.
Still, last month OIT sent out an e-mail to ULV faculty, staff and students to make them aware of these bank fraud e-mails.
For more information, visit the APWG Web site at www.antiphishing.org. For information about OIT’s anti-spam solutions, e-mail anti-spam@ulv.edu, or call Ext. 4130.
Jennifer Kitzmann can be reached at jlynnjen88@msn.com.
