Pitt Information Technology has identified a new email phishing scam targeting University students, faculty, and staff. The scam appears to originate from a Pitt email address and claims that you must verify your University email address and password within 24 hours to avoid termination of your Outlook account. The email contains a link that directs you to a malicious form hosted in Google Docs that attempts to collect your University credentials.  

The following is a sample of the recent scam. Note that this scam message may appear in your junk email or quarantined email folder. Always use caution in responding to messages in these folders. If you receive this message (or any message similar to it), please report it as a phishing scam by forwarding the email message as an attachment to phish@pitt.edu. Detailed instructions on reporting scams are available at http://technology.pitt.edu/security/phishing-scams.

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From: Pitt address
Subject: Office365

To avoid termination within 24hrs, we expect you to strictly adhere and address it... OUTLOOK [link removed] verify your account.Make Sure The login is Correct.. Our records indicate that your office 365 has two different logins with two universities' portals. Kindly indicates the two info logins as soon as possible.

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Clicking the link displays a malicious form hosted in Google Docs:

Pitt IT strongly recommends that you do not reply to unsolicited emails or emails from unverifiable sources. If you were not expecting to receive such an email, confirm with the sender prior to interacting with the message. If you must interact with the message, avoid clicking on links contained in such emails. These may lead to sites that contain malicious software, or sites that attempt to steal your credentials. If a link looks suspicious, you can hover over the link with your mouse to preview the URL without clicking on it.

In addition, Pitt IT recommends that all students, faculty, and staff install Antivirus and Anti-Malware (Malwarebytes) Protection. Departments can submit a help request to obtain Malwarebytes for multiple machines.

Please contact the Technology Help Desk at 412-624-HELP (4357) if you have any questions regarding this announcement.