Phishing Attempt - Mailbox Upgrade

Reported on: August 25, 2009

Description: A phishing attempt has been reported supposedly from System Adminstrator <helpdesk@hcc.hawaii.edu>.

Action: Please do NOT reply to the email. To prevent compromises:

• NEVER send your password or other confidential personal information in response to email. No responsible entity requests information this way.
• DO NOT REPLY to suspect mail. It just demonstrates that you're a live target.
• Make sure you're up-to-date with all operating system updates.
• Make sure you're up-to-date in any anti-virus and anti-spyware updates.
• Don't save passwords to your email account on your system .

Sample Message:

Date: 8/24/2009 10:11 PM
From: System Adminstrator <helpdesk@hcc.hawaii.edu>

Attn: Faculty/Staff/Students,

This message is from our Helpdesk Team to all webmail account owners.

We noticed that your webmail account has been compromised by spammers. It
seems they have gained access into our database and have been using it for
illegal internet activities.

The center is currently performing maintenance and upgrading its database.
We intend upgrading our Email Security Server for better online services.

To re-validate your mailbox and upgrade your account, please click below

http://emailactive1001.byethost3.com/feedback/feedback.html

In order to ensure you do not experience service interruptions, please
upgrade your account to prevent it from being deactivated from our
database.

Thank you for using our online services.
Helpdesk Team