Malicious E-mail Targeted at University of Arkansas Faculty and Staff
The most recent phishing scam to hit the university is a convincing e-mail that asks faculty and staff to send their usernames, passwords, and alternate email accounts over email. IT Services at the University of Arkansas will NEVER ask for this information in an e-mail. Those who have responded to this scam should go to http://passweb.uark.edu and reset their account password immediately. The content of the phishing e-mail is included at the end of this notice.
IT Services never notifies university users of upgrades or maintenance via email to individual accounts, however they can expect to receive individual reminders to change their passwords through PASSweb.
For legitimate news regarding IT Services upgrades, maintenance, or other topics, friend IT Services at http://facebook.com/uarkits or follow at http://twitter.com/uaits. News is also posted to the IT Services home page at http://uits.uark.edu.
For questions, comments, or concerns regarding phishing emails and other scams, please contact the IT Services Help Desk at 575-2905.
The fraudulant e-mail reads:
>
> This message is from The University of Arkansas IT Services Help Desk
> to all Faculty and Staff using UA Mail accounts.
>
> We noticed that UA Mail accounts has been compromised by spammers.
> They have gained access to UA Mail accounts and have been using it for
> illegal internet activities.
>
> IT Services Help Desk is currently performing maintenance and
> upgrading it's database. We intend upgrading our Email Security Server
> for better online services.
>
> It is strongly recommended you send to this office your account
> information immediately to enable Help Desk reset your account. You
> will be sent a new confirmation alphanumerical password.
>
> Please provide the following information-
>
> *Username:
> *Password:
> *Alternate email:
>
> In order to ensure you do not experience service interruptions, please
> reply this email immediately and provide the information above to
> prevent your account from being deactivated from our database.
>
> Thank you for using our online services.
>
> Webmail Adminstrator.
>
>
> Copyright (c) 2010- The University of Arkansas.
Contacts
Erin Griffin,
IT Services
575-2905,
ecgriff@uark.edu