On Nov. 9, several members of the administration reported to receiving emails from President Assanis and Finance VP Greg Oler asking them to process a wire transfer. Recipients of this email were suspicious of this request and notified IT. The emails were fake and identified as “whale phishing.”
This type of scam targets executives and senior staff members with access to personal information like W2 forms and the authority to process funds within a business or organization. In these emails, a scammer is acting as the President or CEO of the company with an “urgent message” for recipients to click or respond to without thinking twice.
The screenshots below are the emails allegedly sent by Finance VP Oler and President Assanis. The scammer forged their email addresses.
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Whale phishing has affected members of the UD community in August of 2016. Again, President Assanis’ name was used to get recipients to download malware onto their computers:
- https://sites.udel.edu/threat/2016/08/01/assanis/
- https://sites.udel.edu/threat/2016/08/18/phishing-scam-claims-to-come-from-udel-president/
If you ever receive an unexpected request for wire transfer approvals or email with an unexpected attachment from a colleague, double-check with the alleged sender to confirm this request is credible. If you suspect an email’s credibility, report it to your department’s IT staff or to the IT Support Center.