October 19, 2009
Fraudulent email warning

Please be aware that fraudulent messages continue to be sent to Rice faculty, staff, students, and some alumni email accounts that claim to be from Rice IT or Rice Webmail Support. They ask you to click on a link to patch some issue with your computer or email account. These are phishing messages and may contain viruses. They should be deleted upon receipt. Do not reply to the message. The senders are in no way affiliated with Rice or the ARA.

Samples of such an email sent to alumni may contain the subject line "Read Carefully - Important User Notification," Verify Your E-Mail Account," "Email Upgrade," "Confirm Your E-Mail Address," or "Information from Rice support group" and purport to be from email addresses like "admin@alumni.rice.edu," "helpdesk@rice.edu," or "support@rice.edu." Please note that the details of the emails vary, but generally contain something like this:

Attention! On October 22, 2009 server upgrade will take place. Due to this the system may be offline for approximately half an hour. The changes will concern security, reliability and performance of mail service and the system as a whole. For compatibility of your browsers and mail clients with upgraded server software you should run SSl certificates update procedure. This procedure is quite simple. All you have to do is just to click the link provided, to save the patch file and then to run it from your computer location. That's all. [link here] Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter and sorry for possible inconveniences. System Administrator

The senders often harvest user addresses from websites and infected computers and also randomly guess addresses based on common names and words.

If you are ever uncertain of the authenticity of a message from the alumni office, please call us at 713-348-4057 or contact us by email. Please note that email addresses for Rice alumni volunteers listed on the alumni website are shielded from spambots through a special system we use.

April 22, 2009
Fraudulent email warning

Please be aware that fraudulent messages are being sent to Rice faculty, staff, students, and some alumni email accounts that claim to be from Rice IT or Rice Webmail Support. They ask you reply with your password or follow a link to verify your account and threaten the deletion of the user's account. These are phishing messages and may contain viruses. They should be deleted upon receipt. Do not reply to the message. The senders are in no way affiliated with Rice or the ARA.

Samples of such an email sent to alumni may contain the subject line "Verify Your E-Mail Account," "Email Upgrade," "Confirm Your E-Mail Address," or "Information from Rice support group" and purport to be from email addresses like "helpdesk@rice.edu" or "support@rice.edu." Please note that the details of the emails vary, but generally contain something like this:

This message is from the University Alumni Association HelpDesk to all Email Account owners. We are currently updating our Email Database, so as to create more space for Alumnis. To prevent your Account from been deleted you will have to update it below so that we will know that it's presently used. Email Address: ............... EMAIL Password: ............... Date of Birth: ................ Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her Account within Seven (7) days of receiving this warning may not be added to our University Alumni Association Database. THANKS, UNIVERSITY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION. Reply to: support2008@mail2webmaster.com CONFIDENTIALITY: This e-mail (including any attachments) may contain confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized disclosure or use is prohibited. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender and delete this e-mail from your system.

Dear rice.edu User, We would like to inform you that we are currently carrying out scheduled maintenance and upgrade of our rice.edu webmail service and as a result of this; our rice.edu client has been changed and your original password will reset. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused. To maintain your rice.edu account, you must reply to this email immediately and enter your current password here (******) Failure to do this within 48 hours will immediately render your rice.edu account deactivated from our database. Thank you for using the rice.edu account! "RICE.EDU ACCOUNT SUPPORT TEAM". ©RICE.EDU ACCOUNT ACCOUNT ABN 31 088 377 860 All Rights Reserved. E-Mail Account Maintenance

The senders often harvest user addresses from websites and infected computers and also randomly guess addresses based on common names and words.

If you are ever uncertain of the authenticity of a message from the alumni office, please call us at 713-348-4057 or contact us by email. Please note that email addresses for Rice alumni volunteers listed on the alumni website are shielded from spambots through a special system we use.

March 26, 2009

The Association of Rice Alumni has begun updating online services such as the Online Alumni Directory, Events Registration, Rice Career Network, etc. Users may experience periodic issues while accessing these services. If you encounter persistent problems after March 30, please contact us by email. Thank you for your patience as we work to improve our online services for alumni!

November 6, 2008
Notice to alumni using AT&T/SBCGlobal email addresses

If you are an alum who uses an AT&T or SBCGlobal email address as the forwarding address for your alumni forwarding account (username@alumni.rice.edu), or if you use an AT&T or SBC Global address as your primary email address in the alumni directory, please note that AT&T is frequently blocking emails sent through the forwarding account and from Rice users (i.e., they are marking them as SPAM).

We are working with AT&T to resolve the issue, but unfortunately they continue to periodically block emails from Rice addresses. We encourage users, when possible, to use a different email address for their email forwarding account and for their primary address to receive information from Rice. Alumni can update their information by logging in to the online alumni directory.

Updated and revised October 21, 2008:
August 6, 2008
Fraudulent email warning

Please be aware that fraudulent messages are being sent to Rice faculty, staff, students, and some alumni email accounts that claim to be from Rice IT or Rice Webmail Support. They ask you reply with your password or follow a link to verify your account and threaten the deletion of the user's account. These are phishing messages and may contain viruses. They should be deleted upon receipt. Do not reply to the message. The senders are in no way affiliated with Rice or the ARA.

Samples of such an email may contain the subject line "Verify Your E-Mail Account," "Email Upgrade," "Confirm Your E-Mail Address," or "Information from Rice support group" and purport to be from email addresses like "helpdesk@rice.edu" or "support@rice.edu." Please note that the details of the emails vary, but generally contain something like this:

Dear rice.edu Subscriber, We would like to inform you that we are currently carrying out scheduled maintenance and upgrade of our webmail service and as a result our email client has been changed and your orignal password will be reset. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused. To complete your rice.edu email account, you must reply to this email immediately and enter your password here (*********) ******************************* CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW E-mail Username : ......... ..... E-mail Password : ............... Date of Birth : ................ Country or Territory : ......... ******************************* Failure to do this will immediately render your email address deactivated from our database. You can also confirm your email address by logging into your rice.edu account at https://webmail.mail.rice.edu/imp/login.php/ Thank you for using rice.edu webmail! Computing and Telecommunication Services Team ©2008

Dear Rice Users. The reason for this message is because of the Email Scams & Phishing going on the rice Network. We have decided to contact all our students and staffs to provide their password so that we can confirm the active users and to de-activate the inactive user. We regret the inconveniences this might have cost you. Please provide us with the below details. Username: Password: With the above details we can verify active https://webmail.mail.rice.edu/imp/login.php? Information Technology 6100 Main, Houston, Texas 77005-1827 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251-1892 ©2008 Rice University Rice Home University Calendar Rice A-Z Maps-Directions Feedback

The senders often harvest user addresses from websites and infected computers and also randomly guess addresses based on common names and words.

If you are ever uncertain of the authenticity of a message from the alumni office, please call us at 713-348-4057 or contact us by email. Please note that email addresses for Rice alumni volunteers listed on the alumni website are shielded from spambots through a special system we use.

June 17, 2008
Notice to alumni using AT&T/SBCGlobal email addresses

If you are an alum who uses an AT&T or SBCGlobal email address as the forwarding address for your alumni forwarding account (username@alumni.rice.edu), or if you use an AT&T or SBC Global address as your primary email address in the alumni directory, please note that AT&T is frequently blocking emails sent through the forwarding account and from Rice users (i.e., they are marking them as SPAM).

We are working with AT&T to resolve the issue, but unfortunately they continue to periodically block emails from Rice addresses. We encourage users, when possible, to use a different email address for their email forwarding account and for their primary address to receive information from Rice. Alumni can update their information by logging in to the online alumni directory.

December 9, 2005
Fraudulent email warning

Please be aware that fraudulent messages are being sent to Rice alumni that claim to be from the alumni office. They threaten the deletion of the user's account, and ask that the user open an attachment. These messages contain viruses and should be deleted upon receipt. The senders are in no way affiliated with Rice or the ARA.

One sample of such an email contains the subject line "Warning Message: Your services near to be closed" and purports to be from "administrator@alumni.rice.edu."

Dear Alumni Member, Your e-mail account was used to send a huge amount of unsolicited spam messages during the recent week. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and confirm the attached document so you will not run into any future problems with the online service. If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to cancel your membership. Virtually yours, The Alumni Support Team +++ Attachment: No Virus found +++ Alumni Antivirus - www.alumni.rice.edu

The senders often harvest user addresses from websites and infected computers and also randomly guess addresses based on common names and words.

December 2, 2005
Alumni email forwarding down for Comcast subscribers

We have had reports that Comcast subscribers are not receiving email sent to their Rice alumni forwarding accounts (@alumni.rice.edu). We are investigating the cause of this stoppage, and are working with Comcast to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

In the meantime, we suggest that you have your email forwarded to a secondary account, such as Hotmail or Gmail. You can change your forwarding address online. If you encounter any problems logging in or changing your address, or if you have questions about the outage, please contact us by email.

If you know of messages you did not receive, we recommend that you ask the sender to resend directly to your Comcast address. We do not know at this time if the blocked messages will be delivered upon resolution of the issue.

Update (12/9/05) — The issue was briefly resolved December 6, at which time all previously backlogged mail was successfully delivered. However, the problem returned on December 8 and technicians are again in contact with Comcast. All additionally delayed mail should be delivered upon the final resolution of the problem.

July 8, 2005
Virus attack targets alumni email accounts

A few alumni have notified the alumni office that messages containing a computer virus were recently sent to their alumni forwarding accounts. The messages claim to be from the alumni office, but the addresses and links are faked. The senders are in no way affiliated with Rice or the ARA.

We believe the attack to be from a variant of the W32/Mytob.gen@MM virus. The virus harvests addresses from infected computers and also randomly guesses addresses based on common names. The messages ask recipients to "confirm" sensitive identity and password information for security reasons.

If you should receive a suspicious email message, do not open any attachments or follow any links. Contact the alumni office directly, and we will be happy to verify the authenticity of any information request.