This page contains examples of some of the scam messages we’ve received as well as some ways how you can tell these and similar messages are fraudulent. This is by no means definitive and we don’t want you to ever say “Hey – this message I received isn’t in the list – it must not be a scam!”. When in doubt, send your suspected scam messages to phishing@newpaltz.edu

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1) Note the text in green – that’s the from line – we’ve changed the from address in this example, but the most important thing is… its not @newpaltz.edu but its some other college’s email server.  Why would another college be sending such a message to our users?  They wouldn’t.  Its just a compromised account elsewhere.

2) Note the website (in blue) that the message is sending you to.   Aside from the fact that the word ‘upgrade’ is misspelled, its to some random website – again, nothing related to SUNY New Paltz (newpaltz.edu).

3) Aside from those obvious issues, this message is a classic example of a phishing scam.  They try to scare you by telling you something bad has happened to your account (in this case your account ‘has been compromised by spammers’!  which is what would really happen if you fall for this scam).

From: “John Doe” <jdoe@student.some-other-college.edu>

Attn: Faculty/Staff/Students,

This message is from our Helpdesk Team to all webmail account owners.

We noticed that your webmail account has been compromised by spammers. It seems they have gained access into our database and have been using it for illegal internet activities.

The center is currently performing maintenance and upgrading its database. We intend upgrading our Email Security Server for better online services.

To re-validate your mailbox and upgrade your account, please click below

http://uupgraade2010.vistapanel.net/feedback/feedback.html

In order to ensure you do not experience service interruptions, please upgrade your account to prevent it from being deactivated from our database.

Thank you for using our online services.
McGee, Jaclyn [mcgeej]
For Helpdesk Team

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The message below was one recently received.

1) Note the text in green – that’s the from line.  Its some random site – having nothing to do with SUNY New Paltz.

2) Note the link shown in blue.  Again, its to some random site which is totally unrelated to SUNY New Paltz

3) The rest of the message is a generic attempt to panic you (you won’t be able to send or receive emails!  Oh no!).  They know nothing about your account but they are making a guess that either you are near your quota or that you don’t know enough how to check (as a side note, your quota is shown in NPMail at the bottom of your list of folders on the left.  In Zimbra its at the top left – the colored bar under your name).

From: “Fdelucia” <FDELUCIA@ABILITIES.ORG>
To: info@it.com
Subject: mail quota exceeded