Some of our faculty members and students received emails in the name of our Chairperson, Prof. K. Balaveera Reddy, Director, Prof. K. Uma Maheshwara Rao and also in the name of some of our faculty members requesting them to contact back by a return email. The sender’s email ids were arbitrary (biggiingerking@gmail.com, directordorectormail@gmail.com, etc.)
It is likely that such emails will be sent to many more students or to their parents. It is a phishing email and if you reply to this email, you will be asked to send some Amazon gifts to them.
Some staff members and students sent gifts and soon they lost huge amounts (two reported cases lost 45K and 30K – a phd student and a staff member).
So, do not respond to such emails and block the email id and also mark it as spam.
In future too, if you receive such emails, especially in the name of higher officials or from faculty members or friends, first check the sender’s email id and if it is suspicious, contact him/her over phone before sending any reply. Or if you receive a request to send money or gifts, please cross check the genuineness of such requests before sending the reply. If you send a reply, there is every chance that your email also gets hacked and is used for fraudulent activities
This is for your kind information and I am sure that all of you are aware of such phishing emails and the intended response (to block email id and mark as spam).
Best Regards,
Dr. M. S. Bhat
Dean (Faculty Welfare) &
Professor, Dept. of E&C Engineering,
National Institute of Technology Karnataka,
Surathkal, Mangalore – 575 025,
Karnataka, INDIA.
