UBClife
Introduction
- UBC Life is a website launched on 9 June 2010 purporting to be a hub of communication for students
- Since its launch, some questions have been raised about its administration, its purpose and its legitimacy
- Informal investigations are currently underway to find out more about this site, its administrators, and other relevant information
- UBC staff have also questioned the legitimacy of the site
- UBC staff are investigating, and will contact the appropriate authorities and site administrators.
WHOIS Information
- Registered on 17 March 2010 at GoDaddy
- Full details- http://whois.domaintools.com/ubclife.com
- Contact information listed as the Address and Main Desk Phone Number for Place Vanier Residence
- Contact information is not verified by GoDaddy on registration, and is most likely spoofed.
This shows a user by the name of "Elizabeth Fontaine" Being active 2 months ago, most likely this is connected with the owner.
Hosting Information
- The site is hosted on a canadianwebhosting.com server, located on the Peer1 network
$ whois `dig +short ubclife.com`
Peer 1 Network Inc. PEER1-BLK-08 (NET-69-90-0-0-1)
69.90.0.0 - 69.90.255.255
Canadian Web Hosting PEER1-HOSTINGMETRO-18 (NET-69-90-63-0-1)
69.90.63.0 - 69.90.63.255
The Email
- Purporting to be sent from contact@ubclife.com
- Note that email from: addresses are trivially easy to spoof
- Made to look similar to a legitimate UBC Broadcast email, with subject and signature.
- Real UBC broadcast messages are sent from message@ubc.ca, and, when signed, include the full name and title of the sender.
- Spot the spelling #fail in it (coversations are sweet. lets coverse.)
- The email message did not originate at UBC, but was sent from a Telus DSL address through a canadianwebhosting.com server
- A quick search through logs shows less than 500 messages sent to UBC accounts.
- The actual email:
From: UBC <contact@ubclife.com>
Subject: UBC Broadcast E-mail: Introducing UBC Life
Date: June 9, 2010 7:39:04 PM PDT
To: xxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx
To the UBC Community:
We are delighted to announce the official opening of ubclife.com, an online discussion forum which serves members of the university community.
This platform aims to foster discussion among and offer practical solutions for students. As a centralized online presence for the community, we hope to initiate coversations by focusing on four themes: admissions, academics, textbooks, and life. The precise meaning of and purpose for each of the forums will become more evident as users generate topics and posts.
Please visit www.ubclife.com and start a discussion today! Users who register and begin posting before June 20th will be automatically entered to win one of three grand prizes: 8GB iPod Touch, $100 UBC Bookstore gift certificate, $50 UBC Food Services gift card.
Sincerely,
UBC Life
www.ubclife.com
---
For more information about the UBC broadcast e-mail service, please visit:
www.ubc.ca/broadcastemail
Twitterverse blowup
- Started by @ubc11eleven, at 8:14pm using a web account.
- http://ubclife.com/ Finally a UBC forum. It's about time. Will this put an end to the endless UBC-related Facebook groups? Probs not.
- @cherylkornder tweets at 11:38pm: trying out this #UBClife business. first impression: not loving the interface. also, where is the #placeofmind banner? shocked it's absent!
- 11:55pm Twitebrity @taylorloren signs up, tweets "Ok. ubclife.com is so stupid. seriously."
- 12:38am - @nyonson and @amsgossipguy begin epic, historical investigation through chat.
- 1:26am - @btaplatt tweets something useful: "if we're going to start solving mysteries, I think we need to at least get a scooby doo van #ubclife"
- 1:28am - This is ridiculous.