The UW Police Department has published a warning about a surge in scams at UW. Visit their blog to find their list of helpful tips, descriptions of recent scams, and a video to learn more about how to thwart attackers who target UW students with fraudulent emails, phone calls, and texts that either offer employment or threaten harsh consequences. And check out our tips below!
Tips to avoid getting scammed
- Be wary of unsolicited job offers and job offers extended exclusively by email or text.
- Requests that ask you purchase gift cards are a very common scam. Even if they appear to come from friends, family, co-workers, or professors, be sure to verify the sender’s email address or phone number independently before responding because the address may be faked or compromised.
- Be skeptical of unexpected payments made to you by check, money order, Zelle, Venmo, CashApp, PayPal or similar services. Additionally, beware of messages in which you are given an “advance” and then asked to return or refund money or to spend some of the money on supplies, donations, or to pay a third party or for shipping, taxes, or application fees. They are almost certainly scams.
- In the case of the “advance” payments mentioned above, the bank will often make funds available to you soon after you deposit a check. This does NOT mean the check has cleared. It may actually take several days or weeks before the check bounces and the money is reclaimed by the bank. Contact your bank for assistance in determining if a check is real as well as for help in finding out when (and if!) the funds will clear.
- Offers that are extended via email, phone calls, and text that ask you to use a personal email address or to reply via text message are often actually attempts to get around UW’s phishing filters.
- If the salary-to-work ratio seems too good to be true, it probably is, in fact, too good to be true.
- If you receive emails to your UW account that you suspect may be phishing or a scam, forward them as an attachment to security@uw.edu or help@uw.edu.
Resources
OIS: Employment Scams Risk Advisory
UW Police: Watch Out for Scams Targeting UW Students