Impersonation Scam “UMBC Student Job”

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 11:53:11 -0500
covid19, notice

Below is an example of a job scam reported to the Department of Information Technology (DoIT). Please note that the name of the from address has been removed for privacy reasons.

From: IMPERSONATED PERSON <officialsupervisor1120@gmail.com>

Date: Fri, Jan 22, 2021 at 9:25 AM

Subject: UMBC Student Job

To:

Due to the concerns surrounding COVID-19 , Also

affecting the university academic calendar ,we urgently

need the services of a competent student administrative

assistant to work Part-time and get paid $350 weekly.

Tasks will be carried out remotely. If interested, Do text

your name to (646) 396-0260 so as to proceed

Best Regards,

IMPERSONATED PERSON

In the scam above, the scammer is trying to impersonate a member of UMBC staff and offer users a part-time job. The email claims that users must contact the sender at the provided phone number to get the job. The job offered in this email though is fake and the message a scam, please do not reply to this or any similar email.

This message does show some red flags the suggest phishing: poor grammar and misplaced capitalization. Notice how words like “also” and “do” are capitalized after a comma. This is not the type of grammar or capitalization most would expect from a professional email.

What to do now?

If you do receive any of these scams shown above 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 or not you responded to the scam, 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.