Scammers hijack US university .edu emails to target students

Proofpoint uncovered an advance fee fraud campaign run from Nigeria: attackers take over .edu accounts, send fake job offers and make students deposit bogus $1,000 checks and buy gift cards. Victims lose about $500 once the bank reverses the deposit.

• Attackers hijack .edu accounts via phishing emails about account deactivation
• Students get fake job offers and a bogus $1,000 check to deposit
• Half the sum must be spent on gift cards and sent back to scammers
• Proofpoint traced the operators to Nigeria via the Grabify IP logging service