Why?

By replying, the scammer now knows your email address is valid and can use any information provided for further scam communications.

Action Needed

Please review the details below and continue to report phishing. If you fell victim to this scam and surrendered your cell number, please read our article on "smishing" so you will be prepared in case you see this type of attack.

Details

Annotated screenshot of a phishing email which pointing out several causes for suspicion as outlined in this news post. 

The phishing message sent to numerous WPI email addresses was CEO fraud, appearing to be sent by a WPI leader. These phishing attacks are not technical, but instead use social engineering to achieve the attacker's goal. Unlike traditional phishing scams, spoofed emails used in Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes rarely set off spam filters because these are targeted phishing scams that are not mass-emailed. The subject "I need a quick response" is intended to pressure you into immediate action. The best action to take is to report suspicious messages using instructions in the related article!

Here are some of the characteristics to help you recognize it as a phishing message:

  • While the "FROM" address incorporates wpi in the username to deliberately deceive you, it is not from WPI; it is actually from gmail.com.
  • The SUBJECT contains the [EXT] marker indicating that it was sent from outside of WPI.
  • The email SIGNATURE is falsified to distract you from the gmail address above.