strange campus "surveys"

[John Quigley <jquigley () TENNESSEE EDU>]

All,

Our users have been receiving messages asking for their participation
in a survey. In most cases I've seen, the content of the email and
the linked survey are similar but the domain names are different.
After I saw the first of these, my impression was that this was some
student-run company trying to bootstrap their market research by
soliciting feedback from potential customers. The "About our project"
link on the web pages supports this theory. After the examples
started to pour in, though, I'm afraid something else might be going on.

If the surveys asked for sensitive information (account information,
passwords, identifiers, etc), I would have this pigeonholed as
classic phishing, but the survey only asks for information related to
the user's preferences regarding IM, text messages, social
networking, etc. In this regard it seems like a regular survey. I'm
concerned as to why there are so many variants of this. Could it be
that 10 or more legitimate startups are using the same email and web
templates to solicit the same information from the same people in a
short spam of time? Maybe, but my BS-meter is pegged right now.

Perhaps it's a drive-by browser attack. Because of that possibility,
visiting the following links is not necessarily recommended without
taking precautions. Surfer beware.

Below are some links we've seen in these emails and examples of 3
variants. If anyone has figured this one out, please contact me on or
off list.

http://www.CampusOpinion.org/mem/b_1969307
http://www.IdealCampus.org/mem/d_2122123
http://www.CollegeBody.org/mem/a_1724126
http://www.PollBoard.org/mem/a_757732
http://www.CampusInput.org/mem/e_41883
http://www.SocialCampus.org/mem/f_1214130
http://www.CollegeInput.org/mem/b_1214130


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This year, the PollBoard.org project is working on establishing new
social and academic web systems for students and faculty on campus.  The
goal is to make academic life easier and give students better access to
more resources.  We have put together a few questions regarding features
you may like to see implemented.  Please take the time to visit the
brief survey page on the website below to give us your feedback.  Thank
you for your help!

http://www.PollBoard.org/mem/a_757732

A few times a year, brief survey requests are sent to students and
faculty.  If you do not wish to help us in the future, please let us
know:

http://www.PollBoard.org/web.php
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===

As we move forward with more useful online systems for both students
and faculty, we would like to get your feedback.  Please take a
moment to fill out a brief (12 question) online survey to help us
understand the demands of the campus better.  All responses will be
carefully considered in our upcoming web software release.  Thank you
for your help!

http://www.SocialCampus.org/mem/f_1214130

A few times a year, brief survey requests are sent to students and
faculty.  If you do not wish to help us in the future, please let us
know:

http://www.SocialCampus.org/web.php
=======================================================================
===
This semester, we have begun working on new web systems to better
assist students and faculty with communication and academic
resources.  Some of the work has already started; however, we need
your input!  Please take a minute or so to answer a few insightful
questions.  Your input will be used for our future releases.  Thanks
again!

http://www.CollegeInput.org/mem/b_1214130

Once again, thank you for your help.  If you do not wish to provide
feedback in the future, please tell us:

http://www.CollegeInput.org/web.php
=======================================================================
===



--
John Quigley

Security Infrastructure Team Lead
Information Security Office
University of Tennessee

jquigley () tennessee edu
(865) 974-1591