The UMBC community has been and is still being targeted by offers of fake jobs, mostly through email.  The nature of these jobs varies from scam to scam but they have certain things in common.  The worst commonality is that the scams, at some point, involve getting the victim to spend their own money in return for a fake check.  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has posted advice on avoiding the fake check trap at: 

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-spot-avoid-and-eport-fake-check-scams

Please look at it.

Bad checks are at the root of several different kinds of scam.  The FTC posting provides some examples such as Mystery Shopping, Prize Claiming, and Personal Assistants.  Variations of the Personal Assistants scam have been reported to the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) with increasing frequency since last March.

The initial email may appear to be from some private company, often saying that you were recommended by some office at UMBC as a particularly promising job candidate.  Alternatively, it may appear to be from some actual person on UMBC’s faculty or staff who is looking for someone to fill a part-time position in a department.  

The job is usually described as requiring 5-10 hours/week and paying $250-$350/week.  This is good enough pay to sound promising without seeming too good to be believed.

Once the victim has agreed to the job (without an interview or even speaking to anyone in person), they will be assigned to do something which costs them money on behalf of their supposed ‘employer’.  The victim may be assigned to purchase gift cards, or to send a check or even to wire money to some other party.

In order to cover the cost, the victim will be sent a check covering the amount spent plus some more for ‘salary’.  The victim is instructed to deposit the check and then to spend their own funds immediately.  After 3 to 5 days, the victim’s bank will send notification that the check did not clear and that no money has been credited to their account.  The money they spent on behalf of the scammer is now gone.

Please look at the FTC advice for more detailed information about not losing your money by avoiding these scams, and about how to report them to the FTC.  Here’s the link again:

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-spot-avoid-and-eport-fake-check-scams

If you receive what you think is a 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.

In addition to any other reports you make, 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 them and the envelope they came in.

How do I forward full email headers?

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

To read more articles published by DoIT Security please visit: 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice.    

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) are continuing to receive reports of new variants of a job scam claiming to offer a part-time job as an Administrative Assistant at UMBC. Below is an example of one of these variants where the scammer is impersonating Dr. Abigail Granger.

The message above is being sent from a Gmail account <talktosharoldiaz@gmail.com>, not Dr. Abigail Granger’s or any official UMBC account. In addition, the email claims to offer a job at UMBC, but asks the recipients to use text messaging which leaves no record of the communication in UMBC systems. If you receive this email or anything similar, please do not respond.

What to do now?

If you do receive this 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 you responded to the scam or not, 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 

To read more articles published by DoIT Security please visit: 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice.    

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/home/covid-19-news/?tag=covid19  

UPDATE #1: Gallery view is now available! Learn more in this FAQ.

UPDATE #2: Students and participants gain access to gallery view with the May update.

Spring will bring warm weather to the UMBC campus community… and an exciting update for our web conferencing tool, Collaborate! The first phase of increased video thumbnails is tentatively targeted for April 8, 2021, allowing moderators to see up to 25 videos per page. 

Three options will be available:

The Gallery View displays up to 25 videos per page. The zoom function reduces the videos displayed. Up to 250 videos can be supported in a session using pagination to display the thumbnails.  

The Speaker View centers the lead speaker on the screen with 7-8 video thumbnails tiled at the bottom. 

The Tile View places the speaker on the left with 11-12 video thumbnails on the right.

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) continues to receive reports of new variants of phishing emails claiming to offer a part-time job as an Administrative Assistant at UMBC.

Here is an example of the latest variant of this scam email:

From: Dr Jeremy <barry01d1@gmail.com>

Date: Tue, Mar 23, 2021 at 12:55 PM

Subject: UMBC Student Job

To:

University of Maryland, Baltimore County is seeking 

a Research Administrative Assistant /services of a 

competent Computer Science 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 

(443) 437-4263 so as to proceed

Best Regards,

Dr Jeremy Dixon

Information Technology & Engineering, 

Room 325J

This email was sent from a Gmail account, not from Dr. Dixon’s or any official UMBC account. In addition, like previous versions of this scam, the email claims to offer a job at UMBC, but asks the victim to use text messaging which leaves no record of the communications in UMBC systems. If you receive this email or anything similar, do not respond.

What to do now?

If you do receive this 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 you responded to the scam or not, 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 

To read more articles published by DoIT Security please visit: 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice.  

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/home/covid-19-news/?tag=covid19 

The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) has been receiving reports of phishing emails claiming a part-time job as a temporary research aide. The scammer is impersonating Professor Robert Carpenter. Below is an example of this scam:

Although this email looks to be sent from a UMBC account, it can be seen within the email headers that the reply-to is <bobc.umbc.edu@gmail.com> and the return path to <pastors@salemfullgospel.com>. 

In addition, the email is claiming to offer a job at UMBC as a temporary research aide. The email is asking recipients to respond with their personal information, for example their full name, cell phone number and alternate email address. If you receive this email or anything similar, please do not respond.

What to do now?

If you do receive this 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 you responded to the scam or not, 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 

To read more articles published by DoIT Security please visit: 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice.    

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/home/covid-19-news/?tag=covid19