The Review

Issue date: 10/12/07 Section: News

Media Credit: John Transue

Students log into their e-mail accounts every day, reading each e-mail message without thinking about the potential consequences. When students checked their inboxes at the end of September, Bank of America was in the subject line, and many students did not think twice about giving personal information to the reputable company.

Yet Bank of America had not sent the e-mail messages. The students had their identities stolen by a phishing scam, a computing con that attempts to steal personal information via the Internet.

Karl Hassler, associate director of IT network and systems services, stated in an e-mail message that he does not know how many people were affected by the Bank of America phishing scam.

"Phishing happens all the time," Hassler said. "The vast majority of these e-mails are picked up by spam filters."

The recent Bank of America phishing spam made it through such filters to some student e-mail accounts, he said. The university posted a warning on its home page immediately after the scam came to university officials' attention.

"Since it's an institution with a local presence, we thought the best thing to do was inform the university community," Hassler said.

He said the best way to prevent phishing scams is to educate students about the dangers of identity theft. The easiest way to avoid becoming a victim is to be informed, he said.

The new P.O. Box system, which began this semester, helps prevent phishing e-mail from being sent to students, since class lists can only be accessed by authorized users, such as professors and teacher's assistants, Hassler said.

"While university spam filters stop most phishing e-mails from reaching your e-mail account, spammers are continually searching for new ways to get around those filters," he said.

The online university directory is only available to members of the university community, Hassler said. It is not a source for phishing scams.

He said students should never click a link in an e-mail message asking for personal information and should delete attachments in suspicious e-mail messages. Reputable companies and institutions never ask the receiver to verify confidential information via e-mail, Hassler said.

Students should perform regular self checks to detect if they might be a victim of identity theft, he said. Students could request a free credit report, contact the credit reporting company if there are errors, place a fraud alert on his or her credit report, close accounts which have been opened fraudulently or file a report with the local police.

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