INTERNET CRIMINAL ATTACK ON UNE STUDENT EMAILS
Increased employment scam emails posing as UNE Career Services office causes administration to take action.
College students have recently started being targeted by internet criminals through their university email accounts. Many students at University of New England have reported suspicious emails flooding their inboxes since last fall. Such emails promise fast and easy money earning jobs once victims click on a provided link to apply. Internet criminals have been posing as the university’s career services office to trick more students into clicking. The scams or ‘phishing’ attempts as IT calls it, have become so frequent at UNE, that several offices (Career Services, Student Affairs, Housing) at the university decided to take action. On January 29, 2020 a flyer was released that detailed tips for people to avoid becoming potential victims of this scam.
Career services at UNE originally became aware of this campus issue through a student employee. The student shared a story about their friend who had been negatively impacted by the scam. Donna Gasper Jarvis, career services advisor at UNE felt like the record had to be set straight about what her department actually does for students. She says, “We created the flyer to put out through our office, so more students would not unwittingly respond to job scams thinking they came from our office.” One myth that the office wished to dispel was about the types of job opportunities Career Services help students access. Emails directly from Career Services will be for more professional jobs instead of fast and easy ones. Also, asking for personal information and money is a huge red flag that alludes to a scam.
Why are students being targeted for these types of scams? That answer comes when looking at the content of the email. The emails in question here are promising the receiver fast and easy money. College students are often very low on funds and don’t have the time to work to build up that cash. Scammers are aware of this struggle and target the vulnerable. Donna says, “Scammers are preying on this emotional response. It’s really unfortunate and I hate to think of students being scammed or losing money, so students need to be aware and savvy.” However, student emails aren’t always the target of scams. Even professors and other staff have been receiving scam emails. Many of them ask the reader to act fast by clicking a link that can take personal information or even give a computer a virus. Anyone, even outside a university, can be targeted by internet criminals. So, everyone must keep an eye out for suspicious emails.
This issue is not a small one that has happened in isolation at UNE. Internet scam criminals have been targeting other campus email accounts for quite some time. University of Colorado Boulder has a job scam warning on their website as a resource. Their advice sounds very similar to the UNE Career Services’ announcement. They warn, “Some job scams are easy to spot while others appear legitimate.” (https://www.colorado.edu/studentemployment/resources/recognize-avoid-job-scams). Despite the ambiguity of some scam emails, both universities suggest that students always ask a trusted official if in doubt. Because this is not an isolated incident, students at all colleges should keep a trained eye out for these scammers.
Employment scams have been such an identity threat that the FBI even posted a press release warning to combat it. They say the internet criminals pose as actual, legitimate employers to email students about a potential job offer. However, then they trick the victim into sending the criminal Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or even money. They use this information to take control of the victim’s accounts, open new bank accounts in their name, or even use their identity to get fake passports. The FBI says in their press release that, “Fake Job Scams have existed for a long time but technology has made this scam easier and more lucrative.” So, remember to watch out for these phishing attempts and report the accounts being used immediately to your campus IT department or even to the FBI. (https://www.ic3.gov/media/2020/200121.aspx).
