WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The IT Networks & Security Incident Response group continues to warn the Purdue community about reports of a targeted e-mail scam.
The e-mails appear to come from various Purdue administrative departments or units and ask users to confirm their e-mail address by responding with their password information. Additional variants of the scam e-mails ask users to navigate to a specific URL and then enter their Purdue user name and passwords. Many of these e-mails use Purdue terminology and appear highly authentic.
“In most variations, the e-mails state that if the user does not respond or take some required action, their e-mail account will be deactivated from the database,” said Scott Ksander, executive director of IT networks and security. “Users should immediately delete the e-mail and not take the action requested.”
These are targeted e-mail scams and phishing e-mails that attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information by masquerading as an authoritative entity such as the Purdue Webmail Team, Ksander said. He reminds campus computing users that IT units at Purdue should never ask users to divulge their passwords to university IT resources.
Ksander recommends those who have already responded to the e-mail immediately reset their passwords. Users can go to the password reset page located at http://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue. Click on the “Change Your Password” link.
