Apparently hackers are taking advantage of students migrating to Volmail by reviving an old e-mail scam.
Over the weekend, e-mails, titled “UPGRADE YOUR WEBMAIL ACCOUNT,” were sent to students. The e-mail says that http://webmail.utk.edu will be updating their site in a couple of days and asks for the student’s user name, password, alternate e-mail, telephone number and age.
The e-mail says that failure to do this will make your e-mail account inactive.
Chief Information Officer Scott Studham called the scam nothing new, saying it’s existed for a couple of years. A copy of the e-mail is listed on the Office of Information Technology website under recent scams.
Many tell-tale signs exist that indicate the e-mail is a scam, including the fact that the e-mail has multiple spelling errors.
“A lot of phishing comes from offshore, and spelling can be a challenge for them,” Studham said.
Also the e-mail uses the archaic “Webmail” as the term for UT e-mail, even though Tmail has been ubiquitous for some time and students are migrating to Volmail now.
“We do not use the term ‘Webmail’ here very much,” Studham said.
Finally the mere fact that the e-mail asks for a student’s password, among other personal information items, is a dead giveaway, Studham said.
“We would never ask for your password,” he said. “We already know your password. So the university would never ask for someone to send us your password.”
A.J. Wright, chief technical officer and chief information security officer, said OIT received 72 reports on Monday regarding information about phishing and viruses.
“Most of the attacks were in the old we’d-like-your-Webmail-information style, and we’re seeing more people recognizing these things as what they are,” Wright said. “As always, OIT is working to improve the filters to proactively stop these where we can and stop them as soon as we discover them otherwise.”
Regarding scams, Studham emphasized that OIT is available.
“They can always contact us,” he said. “If they think that something is a suspect, send it to abuse@utk.edu or call us at our helpline, and we’re there 24 hours a day.”
Last week, OIT sent an e-mail to students, announcing Volmail was available for student migration. Students can sign up for migration via the OIT website.
According to the e-mail, Volmail offers a 10-gigabyte mailbox, up from Tmail’s 102.4 megabytes for undergrads and 256 megabytes for graduate students, faculty and staff. Volmail also has 25 gigabytes of online storage, instant messaging capabilities, an improved Web client, ability to synchronize e-mail with mobile devices or desktop clients and access via http://www.outlook.com.
Studham said the Volmail migration is going well so far, estimating about 1,200 students signed up on the first day.
Students, mostly from the Student Government Association, have beta-tested Volmail for the past couple of months, with mostly positive feedback, Studham said.
He said the most frequent positive feedback he’s heard has been on the increased storage, the speed and the support for Macs that Volmail provides.
In addition, Volmail has a friendly user interface, complete with the ability to nest conversations and delete multiple e-mails at the same time, directly from the inbox.
On the difference between Tmail and Volmail, Studham said, “It’s one of those things you just have to see to believe. It’s just huge.”