Today, on my way to work, I received a rather disturbing email from the University of Central Missouri. The school happens to be the university I attend, so I wasn’t concerned until I read that over 7,000 student names, social security numbers, dates of birth, and then current phone number and addresses were stolen from the university. What bothered me was that apparently, my name was on that list.
Then, I took a closer look at the email. It was a fake. The reply-to email address was not an UCM address. It was 963427.cmissouriretain@myvippage.net. There is a link embedded into the email saying that I should go to ucmo.edu/identityprotection. However, if you look at the URL the embedded link actually takes you to, it is a fake website not affiliated with the UCM system.
Ok, spam email in my university inbox pretending to be serious. Fine. We’ve seen this before, nothing new to the fine students at the University of Central Missouri. But then, I started wondering… Why and, more importantly, how did a third party gain access to an email address that I NEVER give out to the public? Well, the answer came to me very quickly: The University sells student information. That’s right. It’s not a theory, it’s a fact. UCM sells student information to third party companies and then wonders why their system gets bombarded with email scams such as what I described above. Several times a semester, we see the fallout from this type of greedy bullshiz. The University is trying so hard to make more money that it won’t spend on its students that it completely ignores the privacy of said students.
Long story short, UCM students, if you receive such an email in your UCM email account, disregard it immediately, delete the email, and do not click any link within the message.
I say we as students, alumi, faculty, and general public, we rise up against the University selling student information and retrieve our privacy and dignity from these greedy bastards.
