Internal Audit warns of e-mail scams

The following advisory has been issued by Internal Audit:
Within the past few months, there has been another upsurge in scam e-mail directed to members of the Stanford community, usually from overseas Internet addresses, often Nigerian but also East Asian. Variants of the scam have been perpetrated via postal service for over a decade, but the scammers have now updated their Ponzi scheme to incorporate the use of online directory services at U.S. universities and e-mail solicitations. Typically, the solicitation offers to provide the recipient with money in return for disclosing information about a U.S. bank account, or sometimes just responding to the e-mail. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's description of the scheme may be read at
www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2000/fil0064.html

Stanford's Information Security Office advises people to treat these scam e-mails as they would any other spam: Don't respond. You also can forward a full copy of the solicitation (including all the headers) to junkmail@stanford.edu, which will allow Information Technology Systems and Services to notify the Internet Service Provider from which the message originated.

If you have any questions, contact Internal Audit at 725-0074.

• FDIC Special Alert website
  
  
• Internal Audit website