Posted March 28, 2016 by Academic and Institutional Technology
Tags:
Phishing Attempts
Phishing Alert | "Part Time Payroll Rep. Needed"
Students recently received an email claiming to be from Wheaton Portal. The email pretends to be a job listing for a part time job, and asks students to send their resume to another email address. Students who sent in their resume were then asked to provide more personal information in order complete their application, including their driver's license.
This email is a phishing attempt. Do not respond to this email or send your resume to the provided email address. Thank you to the students who reported this scam.
If you responded to this scam and provided your Social Security number, bank information, or other sensitive data, contact Wheaton College Public Safety at 630.752.5911.
Spotting Phishing Attempts
The image above is a screenshot of this phishing attempt. Several things indicate that this email is not what it claims to be:
- The email claims to be from "Wheaton Portal," and shows an @wheaton.edu email address, which seems legitimate. However, the email tells the recipient to send their resume to a separate email address later in the email. This indicates that the sending email address is possibly fraudulent.
- The email is poorly worded and includes grammatical mistakes.
- This is supposedly a job offer, but students are asked to contact someone's personal Gmail account. Most companies have @company.com email addresses.
- A legitimate email from Wheaton College should include contact information such as an email address and phone number for the department sending the email.
People are more likely to give up information over time rather than all at once, so fake job scams like this one usually ask for more and more personal information as part of the "hiring process." After sending in a resume or application, the scammer often asks for photo ID or your Social Security number as proof of identity, or they will ask for banking information in order to pay you. Always research a company thoroughly when you apply, and be sure the person you are talking to actually works for that company.
Always exercise caution when responding to emails. If you're not sure whether an email is a phishing attempt or not, contact us or call 630.752.4357 (HELP).