Many faculty, staff, and students ask if a particular e-mail message is fraudulent or legitimate, usually prompted by a request for personal information. If fraudulent, this practice of spamming is known as "phishing," where a criminal operation tries to dupe you into disclosing some aspect of your identity that they can exploit.
There are, according to some reports, about 8.5 billion such fraudulent e-mails sent worldwide each month. So it pays to know how to identify friend from foe in this environment. Here are two excellent resources that I highly recommend for anyone who wants to be better equipped to deal with existing threats to financial security and identity information.
SonicWALL Phishing and Spam IQ Quiz
You will see 10 example e-mails. You decide whether each is fraudulent or legitimate. At the end of the quiz, you will see your score and detailed analysis of what in each e-mail should tip you off. You will learn a lot about the business of fraudulent e-mail from this timely quiz.
Identity Theft—The Hazards of Spoofing and Phishing
BU's Personal Computing Support Center page on the topic.
What Was Your First Pet's Name? Lessons Learned About E-Mail Security
Article from Campus Technology online
Snopes
This massive database of urban legends, myths, scams, and hoaxes has been a reliable and entertaining resource for ferreting out truth from rumor for years.
