Sunday, December 07, 2008

Don't Phish in Colden Pond!

A little while back I shared a phishing scam that had come through our Hotmail account. This morning I just checked the BSU's school email account with Northwest and got my first ever scam email there. The only bonus is that it came from "info@nwmissouri.edu" ... other than that it is ridiculously lame. I'll copy and paste it below and will put my own comments in italics.

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--

Really, the message begins with "--" ... like the HELP TEAM sat around for hours trying to decide what to write here and when they couldn't agree they gave up and went with the mysterious dashes.

ATTN USER,

Does "ATTN" make it more official, or less? And someone might feel like the school just views them as a USER, but I think "STUDENTS/FACULTY/STAFF" might have worked a bit better.

This message is from the mail server center to all users and
account owners.

For the record, I don't think we have any account "owners." The majority are simply renting the account - and the rent goes up every year.

We are currently upgrading our data base and account
center. We are deleting all email account to create morespace for new accounts.

This one definitely gets them in trouble. If only they knew that the University deletes a student's account not long after they graduate or leave school. Not sure how long it takes, but I'm guessing not more than six to twelve months. Of course, there's also the obligatory misspellings and bad grammar - "account" and "morespace."

To prevent your account from been inactive you will have to update it below
so that we will know that it's a presently used account

Lazy school. If they just talked to the Registrar's office, they would know which students still go to school here!

CONFIRM DETAILS
USERNAME :
PASSWORD;

At least they're not shy about what they're trying to get. I want to know why PASSWORD gets a semicolon. Clearly the HELP TEAM wasn't comprised of English majors.

Thank you for using nwmissouri.edu !

No, thank YOU for the diploma eight years ago!

Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ

Wait a minute... I still have my old student handbook lying around here. VX2G99AAJ? It says here that it's a phishing scam designed to test if students are smart enough to be a Bearcat!

Thanks,
HELP TEAM nwmissouri.edu
LIVE INTERNET SERVICE

Again, let me thank you instead. I appreciate the hard work of the HELP TEAM and the LIVE INTERNET SERVICE I'm able to get with my laptop every time I'm on campus. And thanks for giving me an easy way to extend the streak to five days.

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1 comment:

Dusty said...

I've had at least three of those, but for my institution. I don't think they can fool us Bearkats, either!