We have seen a number of calls for external ‘spoofed’ email messages, where the spammer inserts an “@exeter.ac.uk” address in the Display Name of the “From:” field, such as:-
From: “joe.bloggs@exeter.ac.uk”
The Display Name is in bold and the actual email address that sent the message is in italics. Unfortunately, spammers are not breaking any rules by doing this but they are clearly trying to trick people into trusting the message etc. In addition to this, the sender can occasionally be blank, as seen below:-
From: “joe.bloggs@exeter.ac.uk” <>
We have introduced improved spam filtering to tackle these spoofed messages – and we are currently blocking these in the hundreds. But for the cases where an external spammer has sent an email to an external recipient – there is absolutely nothing we can do, as it hasn’t gone through our mail system so please do not forward these emails to SID.
However, if you suspect your account has been compromised, please call SID on 4724/0300 555 0444 to reset your password immediately.