ISU Students, Staff Hit By Email Scam

An email scam has potentially targeted thousands of Idaho State University students and faculty.

Tony Lovgren helps run ISU’s Information Technology Department, so when the email came up in his inbox, he didn’t have to see the poor grammar and misspelled words to know it was a scam.

“Asking them for their username and password and that they needed to do this so that they do not lose their account. This, of course, was a phishing scam,? Lovgren said.

That kind of email scam is called a spoof. It appears to come from a legitimate organization, in this case – ISU’s Help Desk.

The email scam said the webmail server would start deleting accounts and students just needed to click a link and input their passwords to save their email accounts from deletion.

Although the scam asks for a login and password, not credit card info or a Social Security number, Lovgren said it can be just a dangerous.

“More of a concern would be if you use that same username and password for other accounts that you might have, banking accounts, any credit card accounts,? Lovgren said.

ISU recieved dozens of calls about the scam and many more likely received the email.

If someone does click the link on a scam like this one, ISU said the first thing to do is change the passwords.