email fraud

Yours truly received the email below today, ostensibly from UCLA.  Did you get it?  If so, you might have noticed that it doesn’t come from a UCLA address.  Best advice: Don’t click!  Instead, delete.=========================== important Notice For UCLA Faculty and staff of our email database(University of California, Los Angeles UCLA)We currently updated our UCLA email database.IT Help Desk requires all our faculty and staff (University of California, Los Angeles), to confirm their email account or sending and receiving emails will be difficult. For full access of your email account, follow the reference link bellow to confirm your email account.UCLA FACULTY AND STAFF…

Don’t click! Another reminder that when you get emails – such as the one above – that seem to have some official connection to UCLA and invite you to click here, download here, etc., be very cautious.  The one above may just be harmless commercial spam but the best thing to do is to delete it.  It clearly is not from a UCLA source.  Clicking and downloading may infect your computer and cause damage to it.

From time to time, yours truly receives emails -seemingly from a friend or colleague – requesting money to get out of a distressful situation abroad.  Today was no exception: I really hope you get this fast. I could not inform anyone about our trip, because it was impromptu. we had to be in Philippines for Tour..The program was successful, but our journey has turned sour. we misplaced our wallet and cell phone on our way back to the hotel we lodge in after we went for sight seeing. The wallet contained all the valuables we had. Now, our passport is…

Authorities locally and nationwide are cautioning Internet users of a new trend in computer viruses known as “ransomware,” which take control of victims’ computers and demand a ransom to restore the users’ data. They have different names, such as Reveton or Crypto Locker, and they attempt to extort money from victims by encrypting or blocking access to their data without their knowledge, then demanding a ransom in order to undo the damage, according to police and FBI officials… In August, the FBI issued a similar warning regarding a ransomware virus known as “Reveton,” which scams victims by purporting to be…

In the past, I have confined email fraud warnings to those specifically targeting UCLA email system users.  However, many faculty either have supplementary gmail accounts or forward their UCLA mail to a gmail account.  If you have gmail, you may get a message that looks like the image above and appears to come from someone you know with a gmail account.  It may refer to a service called Infoaxe or Flipora or something else.  Do not click on it or forward it to anyone else.  If you do click on it, it will steal all your email contacts and send…

The UCLA email spammers are back with messages telling you to “re-validate” your email: UCLA.edu Mail Service HelpDeskUCLA.edu Mail Service messaging center wish to inform all UCLA.edu Email Users. We are upgrading our Webmail clients. Your email account will be upgrade to a new enhanced webmail interface provided by UCLA.edu Mail Service.UCLA.edu Mail Service will discontinue the use of our current UCLA.edu Email System. You are therefore required to re-validate your mailbox.To re-validate your mailbox please click the link below: [link you absolutely should not click] Note that the message doesn’t come from UCLA but from “marceloc[at]def.ufla.br.”  It contains British…