Wading through the ocean of ads for dick enhancement drugs, and for hot singles that, let’s face it, aren’t in your area, one would almost get nostalgic for the good old Mt. A spam emails. They are truly part of the healthy ecosystem that Mt. A fails to provide. Like when you are looking for a summer job and can’t find anything, you know the phishing emails will always be there for you. Promising zero work and high pay, just for your bank number, social insurance, and address. One time, I clicked on a phishing email and they even asked me about where I grew up and the name of my first pet. It felt like a really personalized phishing attempt, like they cared for me and saw me for who I was. They really went the extra mile to get all my banking security questions right.
Unlike other schools, Mt. A boasts a diverse ecosystem of phishing attempts. If you go into your email right now and search up phishing attempts you will see. See the cautionary emails warning students of all the new strategies they are applying. Everything from the classic “IMPORTANT NOTICE” that your student ID is about to be deactivated to the musically themed ones with subject lines like “About Piano” which may have been a convoluted conspiracy from mothers across the country to get their children to pick up piano lessons again, or just someone trying to steal all your money.
This is just the tip of the iceberg that is Mt. A scam emails. Like the one you get every semester demanding you pay over 5,000 dollars to the university, or they will kick you out for not paying tuition. Other than the institutionalized thievery running rampant, the phishing emails have been getting bolder and bolder, some would even say ostentats.
There have been some that have titles like “School News.” Which, as someone affiliated with The Argosy, feels like a slap in the face. Especially since there will probably be more people that read that phishing email than this article. Even though the humor section is as far away from news as one can get, and often devoid of humor, having phishing emails encroaching on the already dry news market of Sackville feels personal. Why not send one out about a fowl themed restaurant slash cafe. Sackville’s got about five of those, which does not sound like a lot but when there are only seven restaurants, it is.
Although getting in on the news cycle is a little ironic and bold, I’d say the attempt to masquerade as the CSD Helpdesk scores higher on the irony slash daring scale. The email itself is a humor article all on its own. It’s sent from an account with three first names in it, with no greeting or sign off. It utilizes arrows to point you to the email they would like you to send your password to, an email that is sketchier than Mt. A security: [email protected].
Often the key to life is seeing the silver lining in the most bland of all clouds. It’s being able to see the ocean of uninspired phishing attempts we receive on a weekly basis and look forward to the next one, wondering what weird font they will pull out next.
