FBI Warns of Employment Scam Targeting College Students

College students across the United States continue to be targeted in a common employment scam. Scammers advertise phony job opportunities on college employment websites and/or students receive e-mails on their school accounts recruiting them for fictitious positions. This “employment” results in a financial loss for participating students.

Tips on how to protect yourself from this scam:

• Never accept a job that requires depositing checks into your account or wiring portions to other individuals or accounts;
• Many of the scammers who send these messages are not native English speakers. Look for poor use of the English language in e-mails such as incorrect grammar, capitalization and tenses; and
• Forward suspicious e-mails to the college’s IT personnel and report to the FBI. Tell your friends to be on the lookout for the scam.

If you have been a victim of this scam or any other Internet-related scam, you may file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov and notify your campus police.