Phishing email from official-looking college email address!

Just a warning to all of you who have children in college. My daughter received a very official-looking email from an email address with her college's domain. First clue that something was off was that the subject line read: Easy Fast Reliable. It was to undisclosed recipients, with a reply to: irs.gov@info.net (second clue).

Body of the email:

You are to update your IRS e-file immediately, To Update - < Click Here >

USA.gov is the U.S. government's official web portal.

IRS e-file. Since 1990
****************************

Luckily, my daughter immediately forwards to me any university email having to do with finances. So she didn't click into anything.

Good thinking on the part of these scammers, targeting to vulnerable college students who might freak out and click it.

Please warn your college students that this is going around!

I think all e-mail providers now have an e-mail address to which they want recipients of such mail to forward what they have received so the e-mail provider can take action. Simply designating the e-mail as spam may not give it the attention it deserves.

To get the word out and maybe prevent others from responding to this e-mail, it might be a good idea to notify the college whose domain was used and local law enforcement both here and at the college's location of the e-mail being sent to her and presumably a large number of other students at this college.

There are so many phishing/scam emails, when I contacted law enforcement I was told not to bother. I must get a few per day. On the other hand, the college could post a notice on their website warning people which has been done by real companies i get fake emails from.

I did contact the college. They said they know about it already. Also, the IRS has a (real) email address where you can report IRS-related phishing scams. I feel particularly outraged at this instance of phishing because it is directed at vulnerable college students and takes advantage of their fear of missing deadlines for financial aid or scholarships.

You might also reach out to The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed, both of which report on issues like this. Thank you for spreading the word!

Chronicle newsroom contact info (scroll down to "Daily Team"): http://chronicle.com/section/Editorial-Staff/145/

Inside Higher Ed contact info: editor@insidehighered.com