Microsoft 365 - Mail System Scam warning
The UW-Madison anti-spam servers will add a warning to any message that is determined to be spam and also triggers anti-spam rules that are related to spear phishing scams. This is being done to increase user awareness of phishing scams so that they can be more informed of the threat.
These messages will be tagged in the Subjects with [SCAM] and the following statement will be added to the messages' content.
*** UW-Madison mail system warning: possible scam *** * * This message contains content that may indicate it * is a Spear Phish or Business Email Compromise (BEC) * - types of scams commonly seen in email. * * Be alert! Many scams appear legitimate and * some scams will not always trigger this warning. * * For more information and support, please read * the following doc in the UW-Madison knowledgebase * * https://kb.wisc.edu/13293 * ***************** end of warning ********************
This is a very real threat. Scammers are actively targeting UW-Madison mail accounts in an attempt to steal passwords and other private information. Many of these scams look very convincing.
The UW-Madison Office of Campus Information Security has some useful recommendations about how to avoid Phishing Scams and a Scam alerts page where you can see the latest scams targeting campus.