“Dean Hides Author’s Identity” Phishing Scam

Thu, 27 May 2021 16:49:04 -0400
notice

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) has seen a report of a phishing scam where the scammer is asking users to search for a YouTube clip and to share the message. Below is an example of this phishing email.

From: white <jwhite09@rediffmail.com>

Date: May 16, 2021

To: <@umbc.edu>

Subject: For UMBC Athletic staff: Dean hiding writer's identity of his thesis

Share with Athletic staff

Watch this interesting you-tube clip: paste ' slick way to hide ' in you-tube search bar to find it. You just can't make this up.

A new twist in academic dishonesty (make people think that one's thesis was the work of another person). Crazy, shameful.

People write a decent thesis except him.

The phishing email has the subject “For UMBC Athletic staff: Dean hiding writer's identity of his thesis” and is from a <jwhite09@rediffmail.com>. In the past DoIT has seen similar versions of this scam, for more information on those please see this link here https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?id=98547.

Please note some of the grammatical mistakes in the message above. These can be a red flag for phishing emails. Some other red flags are the message’s request to the readers to share the message with other UMBC athletic staff, and the fact that the email itself is not even from a UMBC domain but instead rediffmail.com.

What to do now?

If you do receive this or a similar scam, please DO NOT respond any further or click on any URLs. If you have provided any banking or financial information, please notify your bank or financial institution immediately. If you have been sent a check, you should not attempt to cash or deposit it. If you have deposited a check already, please contact your bank and tell them that it may be part of a scam.

Whether you responded to the scam or not, please forward the message (with the email headers) to security@umbc.edu. We will also keep track of any other information you submit about the scammers, such as their phone numbers. If you were sent a check or other materials, please send pictures of it and the envelope they came in.