Phishing emails and spam have been sent to several students with a panthermail email address from people they know Sunday night.

The emails contain a subject line that relates to the person receiving the email, and when opened it says “unable to display this email” followed by a green box with white lettering stating, “click here to open this message.”

Beneath the green box there is more text that states the “message has been delayed” and gives a date.

Josh Reinhart, Eastern’s public information coordinator, said the emails might have reached a sizeable population of people with an active@eiu.edu email address.

He said the Business Affairs unit has been contacted and steps are being taken to block the emails from reaching others.

According to the EIU PantherTech website, phishing is the “act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

Students are asked to forward the emails to phishing@eiu.edu or call the Help Desk at 581-4357.

For more information students can check out eiu.edu/panthertech.

More information will be added to the story as soon as it becomes available.

The News Staff can be reached at 581-2812 or dennewsdesk@gmail.com.