Unknown senders, will contact faculty , usually from a @gmail.com address, and offer assistance writing and editing a professional Wikipedia page.
The messages could have subject lines similar to any of the following:
- Your Academic Legacy with a Wikipedia Page
- Professional Wikipedia Page Editor
- Wikipedia Academic Legacy Page
What makes this a phishing message?
The fraudster will praise the recipients research and career and offer their services to create a professional Wikipedia page. The plan is very detailed and will be followed by a request to wire money or transfer funds using PayPal for the fee.
Tips if Something Seems Off:
UC Berkley faculty bios, teaching and research are on our public web pages and intended for the public. This can also be used by scammers.
Always be cautions of unknown senders contacting you directly offering their services.
Wikipedia is aware of the bogus activity and has additional details on their site (non-UCB link):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Scam_warning
Contact Wikipedia directly
If you didn’t expect it, reject it. Or follow up with the organization directly in a separate email or at their legitimate site to confirm.
Report and/or flag it
- Open the message
- To the right of the 'Reply' arrow select 'More' (typically denoted with three vertical dots)
- Then 'Report phishing'
- For suspicious messages received by text, please take a screen shot and forward the message to phishing@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail) For more information visit https://security.berkeley.edu/resources/phishing
Original Message:
