We have become aware of a new variety of fraudulent emails targeting students with convincing offers of employment —but these messages are SCAMS! The latest versions appear to come from real university entities and staff, engaging victims with telephone “interviews” and even providing very legitimate-looking university checks for victims to deposit towards office supplies and computer equipment.
What should you do?
- If you receive an unexpected message like this, do not respond and delete the message after forwarding it AS AN ATTACHMENT to abuse@rochester.edu.
- If you have already made purchases or given the scammer money, please contact Public Safety to file a report and suspend the impacted accounts immediately.
- If you are expecting a message from the student employment office, confirm the sender of the email is legitimate by visiting the Student Employment Office’s
Contact Us page. - If you are corresponding with a faculty member, verify their email by looking at the University Online Directory.
- If you ever question the validity of a message and its sender, contact the University IT or ISD Helpdesk.
** PLEASE NOTE: University officials will never ask you to purchase gift cards, wire, or transfer money.
Tips to identify potential scams:
- Take a close look at the sender’s email address.
- Be cautious when responding to offers via email
- Watch out for urgency. If there’s a lot of pressure to do it quickly, be wary.
- Be cautious anytime you are dealing with someone you don’t know and they are asking for personal information (bank account, social security #, etc.), or requests to purchase gift cards (legitimate business transactions don’t normally require you to buy a gift card, send photos of a gift card, or share gift card codes.
- If the person wants you to switch to a personal email or texting. Criminals do this to get you off our email system so we can’t block them.
- Trust your instincts. If something doesn’t seem right, ask a lot of questions and be ready to walk away.
- Contact the person or company through a known legitimate email, phone number, or website to confirm the offer.
- Please note: The University will never ask you to text your information to apply for a position
Examples (click to enlarge)
Research Assistant Job Scam
AHEAD Internship Job Scam
UR Assistance Program Enrollment Scam
Job Scam Impersonating VP for Research
YMCA Job Scam
