With British students about to start another year at university, the last thing they probably want to hear is that there is a problem with a student loan.
But that’s precisely the camouflage that online scammers are using to steal personal information today.
An email, claiming to come from Directgov UK, tells students that there is a problem with the online account for their student loan, and they need to update their account urgently.
Here’s a typical spammed-out message we’ve seen in our traps:
Subject:
Student Loan Update.
Message body:
Dear Student Finance Customer.
We at HM Government noticed your Student loan online log in details is incorrect and need to be updated.
DOWNLOAD THE ATTACHMENT TO UPDATE YOUR ACCOUNT NOW
Regards
Inline Verification. Directgov UK.Attached file:
Student Loan Update.html
Clicking on the HTML attachment is not a good idea, however, as it will urge you to enter your details which are then sent via a website to the phishers.
Sophos products block the message as spam, and block the webpage that the HTML form is attempting to post the personal information.
Remember to always be suspicious of unsolicited attachments. Also, I would hope that a good student would have noticed the grammatical mistake in the phisher’s email..
