Recently UCLA has seen a significant increase in the volume of “impersonation” email campaigns affecting the campus community. These email campaigns rely on social engineering tactics and generally involve the creation of a Gmail account with a very similar email address to a senior UCLA executive in a deception attempt to coerce the recipient into a response.
A close inspection of the emails quickly alerts you to a possible scam. The sender’s email address is usually in the form of <importantperson.ucla@gmail.com>. This is not a legitimate UCLA email address.
If you receive a message like this, it is likely a phishing message and you should not respond to the message. If you are concerned that the message is real, reach out to the sender using their contact information in the university directory (
Subject: Are you available now ?
Sender: Lubbe Levin <seldahrsamil@gmail[.]com>
Body:
Lubbe Levin
Associate Vice Chancellor
Campus Human Resources
University of California Los Angeles
Good morning
I need you to help me on something important right now . Its something that you can do remotely
Are you free now ?
Lubbe Levin
Associate Vice Chancellor
Campus Human Resources
University of California Los Angeles
Ok
I’m so tied up right now and I would have preferred to call you but can’t call you at the moment because am in a meeting off campus and phone call aren’t allowed during the meeting. I need you to help me run an urgent errand from any store nearby . Let me know if you can do this
Lubbe Levin
Associate Vice Chancellor
Campus Human Resources
University of California Los Angeles
Ok
I need you to help me get an apple card from the store,i will reimburse you back once am done . I need to send them to someone Asap . You can get it at any nearby grocery store either Walmart , GameStop, Target, Walgreens, cvs, Safeway, Best Buy etc
Do you have any of the store nearby?
Lubbe Levin
Associate Vice Chancellor
Campus Human Resources
University of California Los Angeles
Ok
To be more easier for you, remove the card from the pack and scratch off the silver panel at the back of the card to show the claim code, then take a picture of the card and send it to me here.
I will reimburse and collect the hard copy from you once am done .
You can hold on close to the parking lot and do that
Thanks!
Lubbe Levin
Associate Vice Chancellor
Campus Human Resources
University of California Los Angeles
If you have received one of these messages via email or SMS, please forward the message to security@ucla.edu(link sends email)(link sends email), and then it is safe to disregard and delete the message(s). Instructions on how to report a phish can be found on the OCISO site at:
https://www.ociso.ucla.edu/phishing-scams/instructions-reporting-phishing-scam.
