Wikipedia Scam Email Received

Environment

Email

Issue

An individual receives an email from a person who is self-identifying as a professional Wikipedia editor, moderator, consultant, or similar role. They are offering services to create or modify a Wikipedia page for the email recipient. Additionally, they may provide promises or guarantees that the Wikipedia page the create will be approved. 

Resolution

These emails are scams that attempt to obtain money from email recipients for services to create & post a Wikipedia page on behalf of the email recipient. The following actions should be taken in response to receiving such an email:

1. Do not reply to the email.
2. Report the email as a phishing attempt
   • Instructions on reporting phishing emails is available on the Report Phishing & Email Abuse Safe Computing page.
   • If desired, the email can also be reported directly to Wikipedia by forwarding the email, including full headers to paid-en-wpwikipedia.org.

Additional Information

More information on Wikipedia Scam emails is available on the official Wikipedia Scam Warning page.

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.