Impersonation of Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology journal website

Abstract

The website of Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology (JEET, http://www.jeet.or.kr) published by Korean Institute Electrical Engineers was found to be impugned in March 2017. The purpose of this case study article was to describe the case of phishing and suggest the measures to prevent it. In June 29, 2016, informant submitted his manuscript to phishing e-mail jeet@jeet.us, because he misunderstood the phishing site as that of JEET. After that he received the confirmation mail of acceptance and expected date of publication. However, there was no further progress, he inquired official e-mail of JEET on his manuscript. During the correspondence with journal secretary, he found that it was the phishing. There was no request of publication fee from phisher. It is difficult to know what is the purpose of this phishing. Probably, it may be an initial inducement to deceive the contributor. If the manuscript is published in the phishing web site, phisher may be able to request publication fee as next fraudulent action. Besides of announcement of precaution on phishing, regrettably there is no way to punish phishers or more active protective action. It was not possible to ask the investigation of the case to police because there was no monetary loss. Also it was impossible to shut down the phishing web site http://www.jeet.us because server was located in the United States. The international cooperation, enactment of international law on phishing, and its enforcement is necessary to eradicate this kind of criminal action.