“Work-Study Opportunity” and similar job scam emails

These job scam emails are very similar to previous ones we’ve written about. Scammers are continuing to try to take advantage of students’ financial need by offering a relatively generous amount of pay for a small amount of remote work.

Other red flags:

  • The email came from a Gmail address. A real UVic job offer would come from a UVic email address. Job offers sent from addresses from free email providers are typically scams.
  • The name of the sender doesn’t match the name of the professor supposedly offering the job. Inconsistencies like this can be a sign of a scam.
  • The scammer wants to shift the conversation to Google Chat. This is a common tactic to move the conversation away from UVic email to evade monitoring.

As always, if you replied to this email, contact the Computer Help Desk immediately for assistance.

Job scam email impersonating a UVic geography professor, sent from a Gmail address

From: Nwabueze Ekene Precious <[redacted]@gmail.com>
Subject: Work-Study Opportunity

The service of a student is urgently required to work part-time as a student assistant and get paid $250 weekly. Tasks will be done remotely and work time is 8 hours/week. To apply, kindly submit your resume and a Google chat email address to the Department of Geography via this email address to proceed.

Sincerely
D***********
Professor
Department of Geography
Office: [redacted]