Spam & Phishing

Spam:
Think of Spam as telemarketing through email. In the same way that you receive those annoying calls at dinner, you can receive those annoying emails at work. Spam runs the full gamut of advertising including home financing, hair loss remedys, or even more embarrassing topics. Try as you may, there is no sure fire solution to getting rid of Spam.

Phishing:
Simply put, Phishing is an attempt to defraud the victim. Phishers look to trick users into divulging account information of some sort to gain access and steal what does not belong to them. This is a very creative form of social engineering. Be sure that you really are going to do what you think you're going to do before you do it.

At Regent University, we utilize several layers of filtering to block spam and phishing messages for university Email. Though these methods improve each day, they still lag behind the technologies that the bad guys employ. For this reason, there isn't a fool-proof solution to blocking spam or phishing messages. Consider this; on an average day, we block more that 20,000 messages. That's more than half of the incoming messages we receive each day from Internet addresses. Now imagine how much spam or phishing messages would be in your Inbox if we didn't have the filters in place.

If you do happen to receive an unsolicited Email message, the best thing to do is just delete it without opening it. For that matter, you shouldn't open any message you receive that is not of a familiar nature. Instead, you should just delete it from your Inbox.

There are places that one can report Spam. If you get a message in which the originator is trying to trick you (Phishing), you can report it to spam@uce.gov.

Our filters receive frequent automated updates from the vendor. For this reason, most unsolicited Email is blocked before it gets to your Inbox. However, some messages slip through. Though this means that you may receive the message, it also means that our system is building a profile of the messages and may block subsequent delivery requests. Think of it as 'taking one for the team'. You may be one that receives the message, but you are passively helping prevent the message from reaching others.

For starters, do you even own such an account? Remember, Phishing is Spam (sent to large groups of people) that tries to get you to reveal personal or financial information. If you disclose such information to the perpetrator, it will most likely lead to fraud or identity theft.

Here are some common themes you may see in Phishing emails or pop-up windows:
- System upgrades or maintenance have caused you password to be changed
- Your account may expire if you don't change your password
- Your account information has changed, please login and verify the changes
- Phishing messages often contain misspelled words and grammatical errors

Many of these target high-volume accounts such as Ebay, Paypal, bank accounts, and online investment accounts. The common theme is that you must login (give username and password) somewhere and do some action. This information may lead a Phisher to compromise your account and execute fraudulent transactions in their favor.

In an effort to protect your assets, ask yourself questions about the authenticity of such emails. These criminals are skillful in mimicking genuine sites so you are fooled into handing over your account information. If you do receive an email from an entity to which you actually do belong; consider the context of the message. Did you solicit such a message from the entity or is it unexpected? If you ever have any doubts about the authenticity of such messages, don't hesitate to contact them directly to verify the action they are asking you to take.

Remember, your personal information, accounts, and future are at risk in these Phishing scams. Protect yourself from unnecessary disclosure.