Election Day E-mail Hoax Hits George Mason

The George Mason University community was victim of an E-mail hoax early this morning when all 35,000 students, faculty, and staff received a message that said Election Day had been moved to November 5, the Washington Post reports. The forged E-mail, which was made to look as if it had come from the school's provost, had the subject line "Election Day Update."

To the Mason Community:

Please note that election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

In the midst of a deluge of upset and confused phone calls through the morning, the real George Mason provost sent a message seven hours later that said the E-mail system had been hacked into, allowing someone to forge a reasonable-looking fake address.

The Post also reports that the bogus E-mail had been routed through the E-mail servers of wiredforchange.com, a company in Washington, D.C., that provides E-mail and fundraising services to Democratic and progressive candidates.

The chief technology officer of wiredforchange.com confirmed that its servers had been used and abused but added that tweaks in the GMU system could have prevented the hoax.

Local police and the FBI are on the case.