Below is an example of a job scam that has been reported to the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). The job scam is claiming to offer students an administrative assistant position at UMBC’s Information Technology center. The scammer is also claiming to be a Professor Alissa Jacobs.
From: CAMPUS JOBS <talktojoelrn@gmail.com> Date: Thu, Apr 1, 2021 Subject: UMBC STUDENT HIRE To: The services of a student administrative assistant is urgently required to work Part-time and get paid weekly. This position is open to UMBC under- graduate students only and tasks will be carried out remotely. If interested, reply via this email address with a copy of your updated resume and semester schedule to proceed. Best regards Prof. Alissa Jacobs ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CENTER |
The job scam above is being sent from a gmail account <talktojoelrn@gmail.com> and not an official UMBC account. The email is asking recipients to respond by email with their resume and semester schedule.
A red flag in job scams like the one above appears in the poor grammar and misplaced capitalizations. Notice how the word undergraduate is spelled “under- graduate” or that “Part-time” is capitalized in the email. This is not the type of grammar or capitalizations most would expect from a professional email.
Please note that UMBC has no organization called the “Information Technology Center”. If you receive this or any similar email, please do not respond.
What to do now?
If you do receive this or a similar scam, please DO NOT respond any further or click on any URLs. If you have provided any banking or financial information, please notify your bank or financial institution immediately. If you have been sent a check, you should not attempt to cash or deposit it. If you have deposited a check already, please contact your bank and tell them that it may be part of a scam.
Whether you responded to the scam or not, please forward the message (with the email headers) to security@umbc.edu. We will also keep track of any other information you submit about the scammers, such as their phone numbers. If you were sent a check or other materials, please send pictures of it and the envelope they came in.
How do I forward full email headers?
https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970
To read more articles published by DoIT Security please visit:
https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice.
https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/home/covid-19-news/?tag=covid19