Recently, there has been an email employment scam going around. Although its taken place off campus, other colleges and universities have been dealing with the issue.
The job being promoted in the email is a part-time marketing position for the company Auntie Anne’s. They interview the student over the phone and then ask them to follow steps to obtain the job. Subsequently, the scams leads the person applying for the job to accept money and transfer it as a donation from Auntie Anne’s. The scammer uses different names when luring people into this false job position. Ultimately, the goal of the scam is to wire funds into an account set unp by the scammer.
“This is a common scheme that has been circulating for many years. You are contacted or receive a check in the mail. The instructions are for you to deposit the check and if you send a small portion of the money back (say 20 percent), and you can keep the rest. It is a very common fraud with the elderly and college age kids because of their inexperience or vulnerability.” said Patrick Keleher Assistant Chief of Plattsburgh University Police.
Email scams don’t commonly happen on campus; yet, it’s something to look out for to avoid. Plattsburgh’s Career and Development Center has dealt with fake employment opportunities as well.
“Everyday, we review the job postings we get and the new employers who want to post jobs in Cardinal Connect. And I’d say we catch 95 percent, but there will always be scammers who will figure out ways to bypass our efforts and go directly to students. Those are the ones we can’t catch, so it’s up to students to be smart and to report them to us and to University Police.” said Julia Overton-Healy the Director of the Career and Development Center.
While it may be difficult to decipher the scams from the real job opportunities, there are some warning signs that can help.
According to thebalance.com, online job opportunities that are to vague and involve some misspellings in the email should be avoided. Emails that sound too good to be true salary wise are also warnings. If they require online or over the phone interviews and require personal information, they should raise some level of suspicion.
“Be informed about what is a reasonable salary or wage rate for someone with your qualifications. Any business who says it will pay you $5,000 for doing nothing and you’ll ‘work it off’ is a clear scan.
Anyone who says they’ll pay you six figures straight out of college is pretty shady,” said Overton-Healy.“Do your research about any company offering you work…and dig deep. Never give your social security number, credit card or bank account number…not until you have seen the place, done an interview, done your research and have a genuine job offer, in writing.”
Once research is done and the company is legitimate, then you can proceed to apply for the job. On this campus, there is the career and development center which can help PSUC students with interviews, resumes, as well as networking. They are even holding a their Annual Career fair this March 29 with over 75 employers looking for job or internship applicants.
Email Whitney Leonardo at news@cardinalpointsonline.com
