There has been a recent uptick of fake emails sent to students offering employment opportunities. These phishing messages come from scammers posing as faculty members who request the “hired” individual provide their bank account information for direct deposit purposes. University IT are blocking the emails as they are reported. 

What should you do?

• If you receive an unexpected message like this, do not respond and delete the message after reporting it 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.

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