Tag: spam

Message in a bottle.

Mark Smith / / Advice, Phishing

I got a message in my email recently that I thought I’d share…

Hello my name is Julia I am from small city in the center of Russia.
I am 24 years old.I am very friendly and romantic person.
I saw your structure and have decided to do record in you as I search for the friend on the Internet!
I want to have serious relationship and it true.My dream is search for the man which will appreciate me and to respect.
I like to get acquainted with unknown people. I am a optimistic girl with sense of humor, who is looking for her soulmate…
Sometimes I go to the disco with my friends. I like to spend my free time on the nature.
There are a real beautiful places near my town! Al my life I like sport.
When I was young I was engaged in gymnastics and now I am engaged in aerobics.
Al my friend say that i cherful and sociable.
I hope soon to see your message in my box.

My email: ……@yandex.ru

Bye..

Aside from the humorous aspects of this there is a point: my advice is don’t respond to this type of message. It’s very likely a scam so just ignore it

Do you get unwanted sales/marketing calls?

Mark Smith / / Advice, Phishing

It seems to be a fact of life these days that many people get calls and texts selling stuff – the common ones are accident and payment protection (PPI) claims.

These are often organisations who have somehow got your number and want to sell your details on for a profit.

There doesn’t seem to be much you can do about stopping this, but there are a couple of things to try:

1. Register your phone number with the Telephone Preference Service TPS: http://www.tpsonline.org.uk

This doesn’t seem to make much difference as the organisations making the calls don’t care.

2. Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/marketing/calls.aspx

It’s hard to see if anything comes from the ICO, although they are now imposing huge fines, it looks like they have only scratched the surface of the problem

Until this kind of thing become a criminal offence it’s hard to see anything changing.

Plenty of Phish?

Mark Smith / / Advice, Phishing

Looks like a new round of Phishing is hitting University email accounts.

It looks something like:

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Subject: Attention: Account User

Attention: Account User

This email is being sent to you because of violation security breach that was detected by our servers.

Our server detected that one of the messages you received from a contact has already infected your mail with a dangerous virus. You can no longer be allowed to send messages or files to other users to prevent the spread of virus to other users.

Please follow the link below to perform maintenance work needed to improve the protection of the email for us to verify and have your account cleared against this virus.

Failure to comply will lead to the termination of your Account in the next 24 hours.

[LINK REMOVED]

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,

University of Lincoln

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DON’T CLICK ON THE LINK

If you did click and entered your details please contact ICT Helpdesk on x6500 or helpdesk@lincoln.ac.uk

Phishing – they’re fishing for your password

Mark Smith / / Phishing

We often get emails sent to staff something like this:

Your mailbox has exceeded limit please  CLICK HERE: (link removed)  to validate your e-mail

Thanks
System Administrator

These are sent by unscrupulous people who are trying to get you to enter your user name and password. Sometimes they look very authentic.

My advice is not to click on links in emails. Always type in any link yourself or use a bookmark/shortcut.

If you do accidentally enter your details please contact the ICT Service Desk as soon as possible (x6500 or helpdesk@lincoln.ac.uk)