Please be aware of 'phishing' emails.
What is happening?
Although the University routinely intercepts and blocks between 200,000 and 250,000 spam emails per day, some spam emails do occasionally get into your email inbox. Recently, there have been some examples of “phishing” emails that have successfully deceived users into divulging personal data.
Despite a reminder to staff, last week, that you should NOT respond to these emails, several members of staff have responded and their email accounts were compromised, with one email Inbox being cleared of ALL email. As a direct result emails now being delivered to Yahoo! and BT Internet email addresses are now experiencing severe delays, as any email from the University of Aberdeen is being treated as “suspect” emails. Any further occurrences of this kind could lead to the University’s email system being blacklisted and emails from this institution being barred by all the major email service providers.
What should you do?
If you have received such an email please do not respond to the email and delete it immediately. It will not be a genuine email from the University of Aberdeen. If you reply, your computing and email account could be compromised and you could potentially receive thousands of SPAM messages.
Please be on your guard for phishing emails. Phishing emails are designed to maliciously harvest personal details from you to either compromise your email account or gain access to other personal data, such as banking details. We have in the past produced information on how to spot a phishing email and you can find out more by visiting this University website http://www.abdn.ac.uk/dit/staff/news/index_1750.php.
DIT or any genuine service would never send such unsolicited emails to you, requesting that you reply with password details. IF YOU ARE IN ANY DOUBT CONTACT THE DIT SERVICE DESK DIRECTLY.
If you have already responded to one of these emails and provided personal information, please change your password immediately and contact the DIT Service Desk. For information on how to change your password please visit https://www.abdn.ac.uk/local/passwd/
Should you have any concerns or queries please contact the DIT Service Desk:
- Tel: 3636 (externally on: 01224 273636)
- Web client: www.abdn.ac.uk/servicedesk/self-service
- E-mail: servicedesk@abdn.ac.uk