IT Security

A number of fraudulent e-mail messages have been received by members of the University community. These messages claim to be from a University support group, such as the "UNIVERSITY WEB CENTER", "Princeton Web Support", etc., and request that the recipient provide his or her login ID and password for one of a variety of reasons, such as preventing the recipient's account from being closed, asking to increase e-mail quota, etc. These are the latest attempts by hackers to obtain IDs and passwords to University systems for malicious purposes. Do not respond to these messages. They should be deleted.

REMEMBER - The University will never ask you for your password or any other personal information, such as social security number, via e-mail. 

The following are samples of some of the fraudulent e-mail messages that are being received:

*** Example 1

From: (the source varies)
Date: November 25, 2008 6:22:29 PM EST
Subject: Your mailbox is over its size limit Reply to (the address varies)

Your mailbox is over its size limit

Your mailbox has exceeded one or more size limits set by your administrator. You may not be able to receive new mail until you reduce your mailbox size. To make more space available, contact your Administrator with your USERNAME and PASSWORD.

You will continue to receive this warning message periodically if your inbox size continues to exceed its size limit. You are also advised to delete any items that you are no longer using or move them to your personal folder file (.pst). Items in all of your mailbox folders including the Deleted Items and Sent Items folders count against your size limit.

Contact Person:  (the name varies)
Email: (the address varies)
System Administrator

*** Example 2

From: (the name varies)
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 7:36 AM
Subject: UNIVERSITY WEB CENTER

Dear 'PRINCETON.EDU' email account owner,

This message is from the UNIVERSITY LISTSERV MESSAGING CENTER to all our students and staffs currently using the 'Princeton.EDU' account. We are currently upgrading our database and e-mail account center. We are DE-ACTIVATING all unused accounts in order to create space for new 'Princeton.EDU'email accounts subcribers.

To prevent your account from being DE-ACTIVATED, you are adviced to update it as directed below so that we will know that its presently a used account. These notification is strictly to all our ISP account users and all the university students and staffs account owners as this is the last notice/ verification exercise.

CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW:

Your Full Names:.............
Name of Department:.........
User Login Id:...............
User Password:................

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO SEND THESE DETAILS TO THE ADMIN UPGRADING CENTER IMMEDIATELY via Email: (the e-mail address varies)

Warning!!! Account owner who fails to update his/her account on receiving this notification will loose his/her account in due time.

Thank you for using ISP/listserv support.
Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ

Thank you.

Web Admin

"UNIVERSITY WEB CENTER"

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