Omaha, NE
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Omaha, NE
H: 72°
L: 46°
43°
November 7, 2009
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Nebraska offensive coordinator Shawn Watson.
LINCOLN — Nebraska's campus police department is investigating an apparent impersonation of Husker offensive coordinator Shawn Watson after a Kansas high school coach received correspondence from an unknown e-mailer seeking information about potential recruits.
On Monday, a Kansas coach received the e-mail sent from someone claiming to be Watson and asking about students enrolled at that high school, UNL assistant police chief Charlotte Evans said.
The coach, skeptical of the vague e-mail, contacted Nebraska's athletic department, which reported the fraudulent case to police Thursday, according to Evans.
Because the investigation is ongoing, police did not release the names of the Kansas coach or the high school.
There are no suspects at this time, Evans said, although the department does have “some leads.”
Contact the writer:
402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com
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8 Comments
Posted by: Random on 06/13/09 @ 2:36 am:
Why would someone even do this? Weird.
Posted by: Too easy on 06/13/09 @ 7:27 am:
Unfortunately, impersonating someone's email is extremely easy to do.
I have received several different advertisements from my brother's email, none of which he sent.
The FROM information of the email can simply be forged, or the server which originates the email can be requested, from an outside source, to send the email.
It's easy, I'm told by my computer-savvy type friends.
If you ever have something private to send to someone, do yourself a favor, and don't use email.
Posted by: Husker512 on 06/13/09 @ 10:51 am:
Ask Darth Husker that question.
Posted by: Sker in KC on 06/13/09 @ 11:16 am:
I agree, that is bizarre.
Posted by: IT Information on 06/13/09 @ 3:59 pm:
The leads the police have are from looking at the headers of the emails being sent. If the emails were sent from any specific person's computer, it leaves a tracking identifier known as an IP Address. That IP Address is unique to everyone in the world. The police should be able to track this person VERY EASILY. If they can't, either the person sent it from a public computer, OR the police really need to have REAL INVESTIGATORS.
Posted by: Cory Osborn on 06/14/09 @ 1:59 pm:
IT Information - there's so much wrong with your assumption that police should be able to track this person down "VERY EASILY" that it's hard to know where to begin. You could start with the fact that most consumer IPs are dynamically assigned from private ranges (10.10.x.x or 192.168.x.x) and then routed through their ISP and definitely are NOT unique to everyone in the world. An unprotected wireless router would further mask the true client due to its own DHCP services. There is the fact that TCP/IP packets, not to mention the email headers, are easily forged for these purposes of sending bogus requests. Additionally, with as many vulnerable PCs as there are in the world, the source computer could easily be running an open SMTP relay installed via a virus so even if they track down that computer, it doesn't mean they found the sender.
Posted by: OWNED on 06/15/09 @ 3:34 pm:
Looks to me like Cory wins...
Posted by: Donald James Parker on 06/16/09 @ 8:29 am:
There is no doubt that Cory wins. It appears he is a network administrator from the detailed information he provides about TCIP packet and SMTP relay. I learned how to do this impersonation several years ago. I was going to send a message anonymously to the CEO of the company but decided that would not be a prudent thing to do. It was quite easy to do for a programmer.