Scammers are actively emailing students with a fake job opportunity to swindle students out of money. These scammers are posing as professors or job recruiters from other companies and offering large sums of money. Often, the work will involve “administrative tasks,” such as finding the price of items in a store and purchasing gift cards. The sums of money offered range from $300 to $800 for a few hours of work. Some scammers have begun including acceptance letters with stolen CWRU logos to legitimize themselves.
Ultimately, the scammers want students to either purchase gift cards (and send the gift card information to them), or they want students to cash phony checks.
Here are some quick indicators that a job opportunity may be a scam:
- Job opportunity email comes out of the blue
- The “professor/recruiter” seeks the student out for the job (instead of the student coming to them)
- Email comes from a personal account, such as Gmail (always check the email from address)
- The recruiter moves communication channels to another personal email address or messaging/chat app such as text, WeChat, Skype, etc.
- They accept your resume without any interview
- They ask you to purchase items and gift cards with your own money (never purchase gift cards when asked to in an email/chat)
There are other indicators to be aware of—the Information Security Office has a flow chart to help determine if a job opportunity email is a scam. Additionally, the career development office has tips on identifying job scams. If you receive a job scam email, mark the email as phishing and delete it.
If you have lost money in a job scam, contact the [U]Tech Service Desk for next steps.