Unexpected student job offers are often scams
Don't Fall for Fake Student Job Postings
Jobs that sound too good to be true should raise a red flag for any college student. Fake job postings abound in unsolicited emails sent to your student account and on online job listing sites. Fake jobs can be attempts to steal personal information about you or steal money or bank account information from you. You could also get entangled in criminal activity, so be cautious.
EXTERNAL EMAIL JOB OFFER WARNING BANNER TO ALERT STUDENTS OF EMAILS FROM NON-TRINITY SOURCES
We will introduce a new feature in our email system that will notify students of emails from outside the College in the coming weeks. This change is being made to make it easier for students at our institution to identify potential job and internship scam emails. The banner will appear in the first line of the body of the email and will include the following message:
These attacks are on the rise and often employ multiple methods to make email recipients think that the emails are legitimate. Sometimes scammers impersonate instructors, advisors, deans, or other members of the Trinity community to trick students and employees into giving up personal information. For example, a job or internship scam attempt may spoof the sender’s name, using trincoll.edu in the email address (e.g., dean.trincoll[email protected]).
As a rule, students are only hired for Trinity student jobs through official channels like an @trincoll.edu email address or an application posted by Handshake, Trinity’s Internships, and Job Posting site.
To protect yourself from job scams involving someone pretending to be a Trinity community member, do not respond to any unsolicited emailed job offers without verifying through an official source, such as a Trinity department website, Handshake, or Trinity Human Resources. The same applies to text messages, even if the sender claims to be someone you know from Trinity.
If you are interested in finding a student job at Trinity, consider searching for positions posted on Handshake or contacting a potential supervisor directly using their @trincoll.edu email address.
Common Job Scams Targeting College Students:
- Mystery shoppers
- Envelope stuffing from home
- Repackaging or shipping from home
- Issuing checks/check processing from home
- Model/talent agencies
- Pyramid sales schemes
- A variety of scams where a student is asked to pay for certification, training materials, or equipment with the promise of reimbursement
- Pet Sitting/Babysitting
- Amazon purchases
Overpayment Scams
Watch out for over-payment scams. These are often posted as bookkeepers, personal assistants, administrative assistants, etc., to assist in processing checks or mystery/secret shoppers. The “company” sends a check to the “assistant” (student), who is then responsible for taking their”salary” out of the check and wiring the remainder of the money back to the “company.” These checks are fraudulent and can leave you out thousands of dollars and face criminal charges.
Beware if the Email or Job Posting:
- Does not indicate the company name
- Comes from an email address that doesn’t match the company name
- Does not give the employer contact information, title of the person sending the email, company address, phone number, etc.
- Offers to pay a large amount for almost no work
- Offers you a job without ever interacting with you
- Asks you to pay an application fee
- Wants you to transfer money from one account to another
- Offers to send you a check before you do any work
- Asks you to give your credit card or bank account numbers
- Asks for copies of personal documents
- Says you must send payment by wire service or courier
- Offers you a large payment for allowing the use of your bank account, often for depositing checks or transferring money
- Sends you an unexpectedly large check
No legitimate employer will send payment in advance and ask the employee to return a portion of it. DO NOT provide any personal information, especially Social Security numbers or financial information!
