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Low blow: Phishers target student loan applicants

Sadly victims may not notice grammatical error

Phishers are targeting UK student loan applicants in a new scam campaign.

Fraudulent emails, posing as messages from Directgov UK, attempt to trick recipients into handing over online account information and other personal data to fraudsters under the guise of a supposed account update. "We at HM Government noticed your Student loan online login details is [sic] incorrect and need to be updated," the scam email reads.

The email is circulating just weeks before British students are about to start another year at university. The incident illustrates that phishers are widening their nets and going after a greater range of potential victims outside their traditional targets of online banking accounts and PayPal logins. For example, recent attacks separately targeted frequent flyer schemes in Brazil and Google AdWords accounts.

More on the student-loan phishing scam emails – along with samples of the offending missives – can be found in a blog post by Sophos here. ®

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