Job Phishing Alert: Department of Computer Science

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 12:09:32 -0400
notice

Recently, the Division of Information Technology(DoIT) received multiple reports of job phishing emails. The scammers sending these emails are impersonating Professor Alan Sherman in the Computer Science Department. Below is an example of the email. For privacy purposes, we removed the To field.

From: Barry Melvin <barry01d1@gmail.com>

Date: Fri, Jun 3, 2022, 5:48 AM

Subject: JOB FOR YOU

To:

University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Office of the Department of Computer Science 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 Alan Sherman now at (336) 949-8259 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 Alan Sherman

Department: Computer Science

Information Technology & Engineering,

Room 224

(336) 949-8259

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Please note that Professor Sherman 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 Computer Science Department or Prof. Sherman 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.Sherman’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. 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 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.

Other emails that are sending the same templates:

talktojameselliot15@gmail.com

admin@vpn-work.com

admin@vpn-work.com

admin@umbc.live

pamilar001@gmail.com

jasonharvey001@gmail.com

mcgerald.collins@gmail.com