Ithaca College

ITS commonly receives reports of email scams circulating on campus. We thought it would be helpful to share one of these messages to point out and explain the "red flags", designated as "(RF #)" in the message below.

~~~~~SAMPLE Scam Message~~~~~

From: Erin Irwin EIrwin@riohondo.edu (RF #1)
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2015 10:53 AM
To: Erin Irwin
Subject: Faculty and staff email

Dear user, (RF #2)

We currently upgraded to 50GB inbox space. Please log-in to your account to validate E-space. (RF #3)
Your emails won't be delivered by our server, unless email account is confirmed.
Click on Faculty and staff email to confirm details of your user account
Note that password should not be change once email account has been confirmed. (RF #4)
Protecting your email account is our primary concern
Copyright©2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. 

(RF #5) and (RF #6)

~~~~~End Sample~~~~~ 

Red flags explained:

RF #1: The message is not from an "ithaca.edu" email address
RF #2: The message uses a generic salutation instead of your name
RF #3: Unfamiliar terminology; "E-space" is not a term used for IC email accounts
RF #4: NOT change your password? Everyone knows IC requires regular password changes.
RF #5: Not signed with IC contact information such as department name, email address, room/building, and phone number
RF #6: Generally poor message construction and grammar usage

We hope you find this information useful.

ITS Helpdesk
helpdesk@ithaca.edu
104 Job Hall
4-1000