Recently we have seen attempts of "phishing" emails coming into your personal emails. "Phishing; is a form of Internet fraud that aims to steal valuable information such as credit cards, social security numbers, user IDs and passwords. A fake website is created that is similar to that of a legitimate organization, typically a financial institution such as a bank or insurance company. An email is sent requesting that the recipient access the fake website (which will usually be a replica of a trusted site) and enter their personal details, including security access codes. The page looks genuine, because it is easy to fake a valid web site. Any HTML page on the web can be modified to suit a phishing scheme.

Phishing e-mails are often sent to large lists of people, expecting that some percentage of the recipients will actually have an account with the real organization. The term comes from "fishing," where bait is used to catch a fish. In phishing, e-mail is the bait.

The most recent has appears like the following:

Example 1

______________________________________________________________________________

Subject: COMFIRM YOUR ACCOUNT DETAILS !!!

>

> Dear kpunet.net Subscriber,

>

> To complete your KPUNET.NET TEAM account, you must reply to this email

> immediately and enter your password here

> (************)

>

> Failure to do this will immediately render your email address

> deactivated from our database.

>

> You can also confirm your email address by logging into your

>

> kpunet.net account at http://www.kpunet.net Thank you for using

> KPUNET.NET TEAM!

>

> THE KPUNET.NET TEAM

>

______________________________________________________________________________

Example 2

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Please disregard these emails as KPU will never ask you for details via email. We will never refer to us as the "KPUNET.NET TEAM". If you have inadvertently replied to any such message, please have an authorized person on the account inform KPU Repair's TroubleDesk at 225-2111. You will be asked to identify yourself and we will make the immediate change to your email password.

We thank you for your patience and your patronage.

Sincerely,

KPU Helpdesk