Photo Credit: City Lone Tree
Have you received an email to your SUNY Old Westbury address offering you an unsolicited job paying big money? Don’t respond! It’s fraudulent, the University Police Department warns, and they are currently investigating.
The department is investigating three incidents of fraud targeting students at Old Westbury. In all three incidents, students received unsolicited job offers to their Old Westbury email accounts.
According to Detective Diana Parlato, an investigator for the University Police, in the past week, students have been the target of a recent fraudulent unsolicited job offer to their emails leading some students to fall victim to identity theft. Chief of Police Steven Siena said that the fraudulent e-mail asks the student to perform a job, and in return it claims the student will then receive a check for the services they provided plus additional funds.
“The goal of a scammer is to try to access bank information. The scammer will ask the respondent to deposit the fraudulent check into the respondent’s account, and in return, the scammer will ask the respondent to send the additional funds back to the scammer. In this unfortunate circumstance, the respondent experiences financial loss, ” said Siena.
The email received is being considered a “phishing email” which is crafted to appear as if it has been sent from a legitimate organization or known individual. These emails often attempt to entice users to click on a link that will take the user to a fraudulent website that appears legitimate, according to The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Department of Homeland Security.
Parlato said, “Unfortunately, many scams target college students, and many include employment scams… College students, in general, become targets of employment scams because they are seeking to find a flexible job to pay for bills. However, if a job offer seems too good to be true, it most likely is.”
Chief Siena said, “The students were asked to reply and provide a non-“edu” email account and mobile phone number, in order to receive additional information. In one case, a student received an advance check for services, which proved to be fraudulent.” In the email, the name Patrick Kennedy was utilized, along with the email address of patrickken093@gmail.com
“Some students did respond to the phishing e-mail with their personal e-mail account and phone number, but chose not to reply further to the job position in question. A handful of students did proceed in providing more information and have received a fraudulent check for the services they provided,” said Partalo
“Unfortunately, it is very difficult to recover lost money and many online scams begin outside the United States. This is why it is important to recognize a scam and to avoid falling for them.” said Siena. “All members of our community should be wary of unsolicited job opportunities, particularly those where you are asked to provide personal information, including but not limited to email addresses, telephone numbers and bank accounts.”
Parlato further cautioned, “As a rule of thumb, do not give out personal or financial information to any unknown individual and research any business or company before applying for a job and providing personal information.”
If you have any information regarding the above, contact UPD Detective Parlato at 516-876-3333 or e-mail: parlatod@oldwestbury.edu
