This Is REAL. Acclaim is the company subsidiary of Credly who is handing out UMBC digital badges.

As a part of UMBC’s ongoing effort to protect our data and computing environment, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) developed a cybersecurity training course. This course will help ensure that community members know the risks posed by the sensitive information we work with, common threats to the campus, and ways to report suspicious activity.

The training is required by the University System of Maryland and the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits and everyone who has completed the training is going to be receiving Employee Cybersecurity Awareness digital badges from Acclaim. Acclaim is the company subsidiary of Credly who is handing out UMBC digital badges.

If you found the email (from an organization you were not familiar with) asking you to click on a link (that made no sense to you) to be suspicious, please know that we applaud your instincts.  By all means, continue to be suspicious of unsolicited email asking you to do things for no reason you understand. We thank those members of the UMBC community who have brought this message to our attention. 

In this case, the message is not a form of phishing or otherwise malicious..

You may click on the “Accept your badge” button if you wish to claim your badge. These digital badges are used to showcase successful completion of training and cyber security awareness  on most professional networking sites like LinkedIn. 

As noted before, please continue to exercise caution in all your communications.  If  you receive any suspicious message, you can send it to us by forwarding it to security@umbc.edu.

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.

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 

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

Below is an example of a job scam email offering a fake internship opportunity. In the example below the name of the sender has been removed for privacy reasons.

The job scam email above has the subject “HOME BASED INTERNSHIP!” and is coming from a UMBC email address. The email claims to offer an internship opportunity to users.  Please note that this internship is not real.  It is a scam. 

Even though the email is coming from a UMBC address, it is a bit odd that the message is asking users to send a résumé to <isabelmontemayor59@gmail.com>. This should be a red flag to users to help identify a phishing 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.

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

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.

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 Division of Information Technology (DoIT) continues to receive reports of phishing emails claiming to offer a part-time job as an Administrative Assistant at UMBC’s Academic Success Center. The scammer, impersonating Dr. Deborah Webb, is using a compromised UMBC account to send the fake offers.

Here is an example of the scam email:

From: Dr Deborah <(compromised)@umbc.edu>

Date: Wed, Jan 27, 2021, 1:38 PM

Subject: UMBC Student Job

To:

UMBC, The University of Maryland, Baltimore County is seeking

an Research Assistant / 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,

Dr Deborah P. Webb

Academic Success Center

Sherman Hall (Academic IV Bldg), Room 348

FK80139

(646) 396-0260

Although this email was sent from a UMBC account, it was not sent from Dr. Webb’s or any official Academic Success Center account. In addition, 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 

1. Go to the registration page. 
2. Click Register for Session.
3. At the next screen, check the box for the cancellation/refund policy. 
4. Click continue.
5. Enter your email address. QM will check the system for your account.

If you do not have an account, QM will walk you through the process of creating an account.

• Fill out the form with your information. When you get to the institution, enter our campus identity EXACTLY as you see here: University of Maryland-Baltimore County

Following Sherri Braxton’s departure as Senior Director of Instructional Technology, I am pleased to announce the following changes in staffing and assignments:

Mariann Hawken (Manager of eLearning) has agreed to serve as Acting Director of Instructional Technology. In addition to helping lead development and support of this summer’s PIVOT program, as well as the Alternate Delivery Program (ADP) and Quality Matters initiative that informed it, Mariann has also led DoIT’s focused initiatives in accessibility and campus migration to Blackboard Ultra.  

Susan Biro (Online Learning Coordinator) has agreed to serve as Acting Manager of Online Learning. She will be the primary point of contact for existing initiatives, including DoIT’s partnership with the Division of Professional Studies (DPS) to grow and support online courses and programs, particularly at the applied master’s level. With more than 18 years of experience in distance education, Susan brings expertise in many facets of designing, developing, implementing, and administering online programs.

Collin Sullivan (LMS Specialist) has agreed to serve as DoIT's primary point of contact for Blackboard and maintain responsibilities of third-party instructional technology integrations that support teaching and learning. A former president of the UMBC Student Government Association (SGA) and current Master’s student in Public Policy, Collin has helped lead DoIT’s and UMBC’s efforts to support students during the Pandemic.

Please join me in thanking Mariann, Susan and Collin, as well as the entire Instructional Technology team, for their expertise and willingness to serve the campus through the Pandemic push to online instruction and beyond.

Sincerely,

John Fritz
Assoc. VP, Instructional Technology
UMBC Division of Information Technology (DoIT)