This past week, scam e-mails with the subject line “Job opportunity for students” appeared in student inboxes.
The message claimed to exclusively recruit Georgetown students for paid participation in marketing research projects. The e-mails spread through a mechanism called “spoofing,” which consists of stealing addresses from the recipient’s address book and using them in the scam e-mail’s sender line.
The recipient’s inability to track the sender enables the scam to spread quickly and pervasively, John Carpenter, chief technology officer of the McDonough School of Business, said.
“This is a very fast moving thing,” Carpenter said. “Spam is getting under control, but scam is out of control.”
Although the emails do not affect specific computers, he said, a scam’s ability to compromise entire address books and access GU e-mails anywhere on the Internet leaves all students exposed, regardless of the security measures in place on campus.
Responding to scam emails can result in consequences as severe as personal identity theft, Carpenter warned.
Additional reporting by Melissa Lefkowitz
