[theory students] Fwd: Alert regarding FOCS

[Shuchi Chawla <shuchi@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Fyi. Always be careful with your own submissions.

Shuchi

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Yuval Rabani <yrabani@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, Apr 3, 2019, 3:08 AM
Subject: Alert regarding FOCS
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Hi everyone,

I apologize for the grand spamming. If this werenât both urgent and potentially serious, I wouldnât have done it.

Iâm trying to increase the exposure of the theory community to the following message I tweeted today (and also a few days ago, unfortunately on April 1). Youâre a random (very biased) sample of theoreticians with emails easily available to me, and I hope you can help spread this further.

Hereâs the tweet (you can find it on our new account @IeeeTcmf):

ââââââââââââ

As April 5 (FOCS submission deadline) approaches:

Beware of a site (aconf dot org) that pretends to be FOCS and runs a fake submission server!

When googling "FOCS 2019", it shows up first or second (lower on bing)

Purpose unknown, phishing passwords?

ââââââââââââ

I donât know for sure that the intention is malicious, and I and others have taken other steps regarding the potential threat, but itâs a good idea to have as many people aware of this as possible. We (FOCS 2019 team) are aware of at least two cases where people fell for this and noticed it. We donât know how many people fell for this and did not notice it.

Best and thanks for your help,
Yuval