We just got an email from a concerned student who received a phishing email to do with his PayPal account.
The hyperlink does not go to PayPal but some random server which could potentially do anything – e.g. pretend to be PayPal login page, install malware / viruses on your computer, and/or many other nasty things which a normal decent person couldn’t even begin to imagine. DO NOT FOLLOW HYPERLINKS IN EMAILS.
If you receive anything like this in your Inbox then you “could” forward it to the IT Services Phishing team (phishing@it.ox.ac.uk) but to be honest they are only interested in phishing scams that specifically target Oxford University – known in the trade as Spear Phishing. These are very targeted e.g. mention Nexus accounts, or Oxford hardship funds, or maybe even an Oxford specific event etc
Warnings and Alerts
We do not like sending out specific warnings as we found that people then become complacent – we really want you to learn to be suspicious of emails making weird and wonderful claims about your online life. 🙂
If you want to test your Phishing skills give this quiz from the people at OpenDNS a go :
https://www.opendns.com/phishing-quiz/
Have a great Summer!