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Job Scam Alert: Department of Psychology

An Accidental Forward Keeps Us All On Our Toes

The Division of Information Technology has received quite a few reports of a new job scam email coming from the Department of Psychology. It is very similar to others we have received in the past, and an example of the email has been copied below. Do not respond to this message. For privacy purposes, we have removed the To field.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
    From: Scott Brown 
    Date: Tue, Feb 8, 2022 at 9:10 AM
    Subject: UMBC STUDENTS HIRING
    To:
    
    The service of a student assistant is urgently required to
    work part-time and get paid $315 weekly. Tasks will be carried
    out remotely and work time is 7hrs/week. This position is
    available to both graduate and undergraduate students of the
    university.
    If interested, send a copy of your updated resume and a
    functional whatsapp number to our Department of Psychology via
    this email address to proceed further on the job
    roles/responsibilities. 
    
    Sincerely
    Anne E. Brodsky, Ph.D.
    Professor and Chair
    Department of Psychology
    Office: Math/Psychology 311
    Lab: Sondheim 508
In this case, the message was accidentally forwarded to a prominent mailing list, lending a slight bit of credibility. However, there are still some red flags in this message that should lead you to pause before responding.
  1. Scammers love to ask for your WhatsApp number, and prefer this message of communication. It is more anonymous, and if their number is reported or blocked, they can easily create a new one. The same can be said of the from address from this forwarded message: it appears to be a randomly generated address from Gmail rather than one from UMBC. Be suspicious whenever you see these signs.
  2. This email template is very common. We have even posted several stories right here for the same scam from different actors, and a quick Google search results in several other places with the same alerts.
For more information about phishing, visit https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?id=98136.

If you have received any message similar to the one listed above, please forward it with its headers to security@umbc.edu. For instructions, visit: https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970.
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Posted: February 8, 2022, 2:16 PM

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