Job Phishing Alert: Department-wide phishing Campaign

Mon, 09 May 2022 11:02:15 -0400
notice

Recently, the Division of Information Technology(DoIT) received multiple reports of job phishing emails. The scammers sending these emails are impersonating professors of the different departments at UMBC. The example below impersonates Professor Hennigan of the Department of Economics. For privacy purposes, we removed the To field.

From: Barry Melvin <barry01d1@gmail.com>

Date: Thu, May 5, 2022, 15:34

Subject: Internship UMBC

To:

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, The Office of the Department of Economics urgently needs the services of students to work remotely as research assistants and get paid $300 weekly. The position is served remotely and assignments can be carried out in your leisure time. The position is open to students from any department of the institution UMBC. To proceed with the application process, contact Professor Christopher Hennigan now at (310) 818-3769 via text message stating your full name, email address, year of study, and department to receive the job description and further application requirements.

Best Regards,

Professor Christopher Hennigan

Department: Chemical Engineering

Technology Research Center,

Room 253

(310) 818-3769

University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Please note that the Departments or professors did not send these messages. Two visible red flags in these emails are:

1. The From address is not a UMBC email. In the example above, if the Economics Department or Prof. Hennigan were sending this email, the From address would have been a UMBC email address. However, it was sent from <barry01d1@gmail.com>, which is not a UMBC affiliate. Notice that the email's name is not registered under Prof.Hennigan’s name but Barry Melvin's. This is another giveaway that the professor did not send this email. However, please note that the email could have been spoofed, even if it appears to originate from a UMBC email. Therefore, always check with DoIT(security@umbc.edu) or email/contact the impersonated person on a completely different email when you see a conflict in the address.

1. WhatsApp/Phone number. A lot of scammers will ask for your number. If their number gets reported, they could easily get a new one. The same can be said for an email address; however, they will lose responses from other phishing email recipients if their email is blocked. If you ever receive a job offer asking for a WhatsApp number or a phone number in general, BE SUSPICIOUS!

2. The email template. This template is very common. After a quick Google search, we found three Job scams articles with the same template. So if you are ever in doubt, GOOGLE IT! UMBC will not use a known phishing template to offer you a job opportunity.

The other professors and departments impersonated using a similar template are:

Professor Brandy Wallace in the Department of Sociology <menitreksksjjekisodrekssj66@gmail.com>

Professor Anne E. Brodsky in the Department of Psychology <hollywoodardshop@gmail.com>

Professor Alan Sherman in the Department of Computer Science <mullerjame65@gmail.com>/<menitreksksjjekisodrekssj66@gmail.com>

Professor Lisa Dickson in the Department of Economics <joseplhevans@gmail.com>

Professor Park Do Hwan the Department: Mathematics and Statistics <joseplhevans@gmail.com>