Personal Assistant Job Scam

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 20:46:02 -0500
notice

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) has been notified that a scammer is sending out phishing emails claiming to offer an interim personal assistant job. Please note that this offer is fake. Below is an example of this job scam.

From: Lynda Box <Lynda.Box@anu.edu.au>

Date: Wed, Jan 13, 2021

Subject: University of maryland, baltimore county apply for spring winter p/t jobs work from school/home offer for students 2021

To: <@umbc.edu>

I am Annette Bonner, my specializations are foot and ankle, athletic injuries, shoulder and elbow, trauma and

fractures, sports medicine, and arthroscopic surgery. Also interested in procedures of replacing shoulders and knees.

This message was sent to your email because you have an opportunity from the University Office for Students with

Disabilities to work with me to help and assist students with disabilities frustrated with ignorance and lack of services

but as my interim personal assistant. I can assure you this employment is very simple, all you need to do are purchase

some items when needed, mailing of letters, and making payments at Walmart and this employment won't take much of

your time at least two hours daily and three times in a week for ($450).

I am unable to meet up with you for an interview since I am away currently helping the disabled students in

Australia, for all the purchases and tasks to get done on my behalf while I am still away, you will be paid in advance.

Upon my arrival we will discuss the possibility of making this a long-term employment that if you do really impress me

with your services while I am away. My arrival is scheduled for the end of January 2021.

To Apply : Please forward all applications including Full name, Address, Alternate email (different from school

email) and mobile number Attached Resume( Its okay if you do not have resume to attach). Please its highly important

that you reply and send above information to my personal email address(boseannette85@gmail.com) so i can respond

back to you ASAP.

Best Regards

Professor Annette Bonner

In the example above it can be seen that the email is sent from <Lynda.Box@anu.edu.au> and has the subject “University of maryland, baltimore county apply for spring winter p/t jobs work from school/home offer for students 2021”. In standard English, of course, proper nouns are capitalized, as in “University of Maryland, Baltimore County”.

The phishing email itself claims to offer students a job as a personal assistant. The scammer is asking that applicants respond by emailing their personal information. If you have received this email please do not respond.

There are red flags in this phishing campaign that can help to alert users.. For one thing, the scammer is not giving an interview, even online. This is a red flag as most jobs would want some sort of interview or meeting process before hiring anyone. Another red flag is that the email uses words like “highly important that you reply,” this gives the user a sense of urgency which frequently a part of phishing and job scam emails.

The terrible grammar and punctuation are also not what you would expect from a professor, providing another red flag. It is also odd that the email is asking the users to respond to <boseannette85@gmail.com> instead of to Prof. Bonner, the actual sender in the from address.

This job scam is similar to another phishing campaign that the DoIT has been notified of. This other scam comes from a <DJ2205831@pusdk12.org>. For more information on that scam please see the link here (https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?id=98456).

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.

How do I forward full email headers?

https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970

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