An Impersonation Scam

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 11:02:31 -0400
notice

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) has seen reports of a scammer impersonating a UMBC professor. An example of this scam is included below.

From: (IMPERSONATED PERSON) <officeonline1632@gmail.com>

Date: Sat, May 22, 2021

Subject:

To: <@umbc.edu>

Hello, please I want to know if you are tied up presently? I have a request for you to help me handle discreetly. I am engaged at the moment, please no calls. I will be looking forward to your response here.

Sent from Mymail

The phishing message above is claiming that the scammer is busy and needs the user's help. In the past previous scams like this involved the scammer asking the user to purchase them gift cards, wire transfer money, or purchase them crypto currencies.

Even though the message looks to be coming from a UMBC personnel, please note the From email is not actually from a UMBC domain but instead is coming from Gmail <officeonline1632@gmail.com>.

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.