Students have been warned by MATSEC examination board that an e-mail they may receive is a spoof.

The e-mail, sent to some students on Tuesday afternoon, is telling recipients that they have to re-sit some examinations as their papers were damaged in a fire.

The e-mail, the subject of which reads "O-level rescheduling" is addressed to parents and says a fire in the storage unit damaged a batch of examination papers.

“Candidates with damaged papers are to take the exam again,” the e-mail reads.

“Each exam will be split into two parts with a half an hour break in between to go easier on the students.”

Neither SEC nor MATSEC examinations include breaks, and while a MATSEC exam usually lasts three hours, the e-mail said exams would last over four-and-a-half hours. 

The email also included a timetable for the 12 rescheduled exams, the first one being Mathematics Paper 1B, supposedly to take place on Wednesday between 3 and 7.30pm. 

The other (non) examinations, which would continue until June 9, included English literature, religion, biology and environmental studies.

No information about the exam venue is given.

Speaking to Times of Malta, a university spokesperson confirmed that, so far, only one student has reported the e-mail to MATSEC.

The spoof e-mail originates from matsec.sec@outlook.com. 

The spokesperson said MATSEC communicates with students through matsec@um.edu.mt or registrations.matsec@um.edu.mt

“We decided to not take any chances and post about the fake email on our socials to warn students," he said.

Spoof emails and fake websites have become extremely common, and at times, more difficult to catch out. 

Both BOV and APS have recently urged customers to be more cautious of fake emails and SMS messages impersonating the banks and asking for personal details.