Beware of password phishing
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| Don't respond to suspicious e-mails about your account. |
You may have recently received e-mails asking for your password and stating that your password has expired or that your account quota is over limit.
These are scams.
The Fermilab Service Desk and administrators will NEVER ask you for your password. Despite the fact that the sender name may be something like " Help Desk," these e-mails are scams. They are attempts to get you to reveal your password and other personal information, usually through an attached questionnaire.
Such "phishing" attempts try to gather personal information such as passwords by appearing to come from a legitimate source. The most prevalent method of phishing is spam e-mail that asks you to submit information by replying or by entering the information on a fake website.
If you respond to these e-mails, thus revealing your password, the attacker could use your account to send mass spam e-mails. Also, since the attacker would have access to your e-mail account, he or she could click on the "forgot my password" feature on financial websites to reset that password and gain access to your financial information.
The following is one of the many examples of the type of e-mail that you
should disregard. To reiterate, the Fermilab Service Desk and
administrators will never ask you for your password.
From: WebCT Administrator
Subject: WebCT Administrator
Confirm Your Webmail Identities.
Your Webmail Quota Has Exceeded The Set Quota/Limit
Which Is 20GB.You Are Currently Running On 23GB due to hidden files
and folder on your Mailbox.
Please submit the information below to Validate Your
Mailbox And Increase Your Quota.
First Name:
Username/ID:
Password:
Confirm Password:
Failure to do this will result in limited access to your
mailbox.
- Art Lee, Computer Security Team
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