Bello! UCL provost Michael Arthur

Students were inundated with thousands of unwanted emails overnight after access was gained to a group mailing address for students.

As a result, students were registered to porn sites, One Direction¡¯s fan group, the UK Independence Party¡¯s mailing list and hundreds of other unwanted group listings and free subscriptions.

The original email received by students purported to be from the account of UCL¡¯s provost Michael Arthur, with a one word message: ¡°bello!¡±.

So-called ¡°bellogate¡± has been trending on Twitter as students took to the internet to complain about their unwanted emails.

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In a statement to students earlier this morning, Mike Cope, director of UCL¡¯s information services division, said ¡°multiple emails (perhaps up to 1,000) have been received by students on an all-student email list¡±.

He added that the ¡°problem was compounded because replies were posted to the list, and the email address was used to subscribe to various sites¡±.

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Mr Cope urged students ¡°not to respond to the list¡±, adding that it was closed down as of 9.30am on 9 October. He also apologised for the inconvenience caused.

A tweet from UCL¡¯s student union magazine The Cheese Grater expressed dismay at the incident. ¡°UCL¡¯s entire mailing list is in public domain now, 1000¡¯s emails sent and signed up to stuff. Someone¡¯s gonna be fired,¡± the tweet read.

jack.grove@tesglobal.com