Spam/password fishing? or genuine email?

Thirdfox

I just got this sent into my tcd.ie account:

Dear tcd.ie Account User,

There will be an upgrade in our system between 15th to 24th of October 2010.
Due to the anonymous registration of tcd.ie accounts and number of
dormant accounts, we will be running this upgrade to determine the exact
number of subscribers we have at present.

You are instructed to login to your www.tcd.ie email account to verify if
your account is still valid and send immediately the following:

Login Name:................................(Compulsory)
Password:...................................(Compulsory)
Date of Birth:..............................(Optional)
State:........................................(Optional)

Before sending your account details to us, you are advise to Login
into this Link below: https://mymail.tcd.ie/
https://webmail.scss.tcd.ie/src/login.php


Note that if your account do Login, send us the details or otherwise
it means it has been deleted. Sorry for the inconvenience this might
cause you we are only trying to make sure you don't lose informations in
your accounts.

All you have to do is Click Reply and supply the information above,
your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

Thanks for your attention to this request. Once again We apologize
for any inconveniences. Warning!!! Account users that refuse to update
their account after 5 Days of receiving this warning, user will lose his/her
account permanently.

2010©tcd.ie Email Account (https://mymail.tcd.ie/
https://webmail.scss.tcd.ie/src/login.php)

---

I assume this is an insidious attempt at getting people to send their usernames and passwords to "helpdesk.team148@gmail.com"? Just wanted to warn anyone who may have received the same email.

Has anyone heard anything from ISServices about this?

FluffyCat

That souund really odd!! I didnt get any email like that and wouldnt give them my password even if I did!!

enda1

Complete bollox.

Tell ISS what's going on.

What details are in the email header?

PurpleFistMixer

Oh god what state am I in?

Jammyc

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

Oh god what state am I in?

Hungover?

antiselfdual

Spin up?

FlameOne

Thirdfox wrote: »

I just got this sent into my tcd.ie account:

Dear tcd.ie Account User,

There will be an upgrade in our system between 15th to 24th of October 2010.
Due to the anonymous registration of tcd.ie accounts and number of
dormant accounts, we will be running this upgrade to determine the exact
number of subscribers we have at present.

You are instructed to login to your www.tcd.ie email account to verify if
your account is still valid and send immediately the following:

Login Name:................................(Compulsory)
Password:...................................(Compulsory)
Date of Birth:..............................(Optional)
State:........................................(Optional)

Before sending your account details to us, you are advise to Login
into this Link below: https://mymail.tcd.ie/
https://webmail.scss.tcd.ie/src/login.php


Note that if your account do Login, send us the details or otherwise
it means it has been deleted. Sorry for the inconvenience this might
cause you we are only trying to make sure you don't lose informations in
your accounts.

All you have to do is Click Reply and supply the information above,
your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

Thanks for your attention to this request. Once again We apologize
for any inconveniences. Warning!!! Account users that refuse to update
their account after 5 Days of receiving this warning, user will lose his/her
account permanently.

2010©tcd.ie Email Account (https://mymail.tcd.ie/
https://webmail.scss.tcd.ie/src/login.php)

---

I assume this is an insidious attempt at getting people to send their usernames and passwords to "helpdesk.team148@gmail.com"? Just wanted to warn anyone who may have received the same email.

Has anyone heard anything from ISServices about this?

To all staff and students:

Regarding recent bogus email messages that seek your login name
and password in order to supposedly assist in some upgrade process,
or verify something or other for Google administration, or
TCD administration or whoever:

Please do not ever, *EVER* give your password in an email to
*anyone*. If your password is being sought, you can take it
as almost 100% certain that the message is fraudulent and that
the intent of the sender is malign. Delete and ignore the message.

Thanks
Stephen Kenny
System Administrator
School of Computer Science and Statistics.

Jehuty42

Anyone in the School of Computer Science and Statistics got the above email.
I like how it's the CS department who sent the email, showing that ISS won't get up off their fat asses for this kind of thing.

Thirdfox

I guess "State" kinda reveals it to be based on American uni's and not Ireland

Guess I had a brain fart and actually thought it was real for a moment.

Sent off a quick email to ISServices.

ED E

Jehuty42 wrote: »

Anyone in the School of Computer Science and Statistics got the above email.
I like how it's the CS department who sent the email, showing that ISS won't get up off their fat asses for this kind of thing.

I got a SCSS email then an ISS one. No phisher though.

gearoidof

Hi Helpdesk,

Login Name:................................Amoron
Password:...................................********
Date of Birth:..............................14.10.10
State:........................................Inebriated

I replied with that

Groinshot

Jehuty42 wrote: »

Anyone in the School of Computer Science and Statistics got the above email.
I like how it's the CS department who sent the email, showing that ISS won't get up off their fat asses for this kind of thing.

Kind regards,
IS Services Helpdesk
was at the end of my email, and I got it from helpdesk@tcd.ie
also, I'm sure they have enough problems at the minute, you'd know if you ahd to rely on a college connection for internet outside of hours.

Jehuty42

I got an email from Stephen in SCSS at "Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 09:57", while I was still on the way into college. This was the email quoted by FlameOne above. Later on that day, I received an email from Helpdesk, at "Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 17:05" when I was at home, which is the one I presume Groinshot refers to. Granted my username is at the end of the alphabet so that would affect when I receive emails sent to the undergrad list, but from my perspective, and the perspective of many others, ISS took their time in warning us about the phishing attempt.

As regards ISS's problems, that is the result of a system failure in the college administration to deal with upgrading the college's network infrastructure in line with increasing student intake, and I do not blame them and wish as much as anyone that we could get a world-class internet connection disseminated to all students and staff of TCD. Further, I would be lying if I said that my decision to not pursue college accommodation over the last few years was not influenced by the spectre of being behind the flaky proxya and proxyb bastions of ISS.

Thirdfox

So I take it that people still in college got an email warning them about this?

Nice of ISServices to not inform all those who had graduated and still used their @tcd.ie accounts.

In fact the only reason that I was momentarily fooled by this email was the fact that I remember that ISServices liked to upgrade the network every 3 weeks or so. Oh well.

tehjimmeh

Thirdfox wrote: »

In fact the only reason that I was momentarily fooled by this email was the fact that I remember that ISServices liked to upgrade the network every 3 weeks or so. Oh well.

Just for future reference, you should never ever ever ever ever have to confirm your password by emailing it to someone in plaintext.

I'm struggling to think of any situation where ISS would need you to confirm your username and password, but let's say they needed you to. 1) It would have to be done by a link to a form on a website, 2) the site would need to have a recognizable domain, like isservices.tcd.ie, and 3) it would have to have "https" at the start of it.

If ISS, or any organisation which I had an account with legitimately emailed me asking me to confirm my password in plaintext over email, I would be replying with something along the lines of "are you fúcking joking?"

amacachi

I put in "hunter2" as my password, though it's probably coming up as "*******" for everyone else.