Brock University’s Information Technology Services (ITS) team is advising students, faculty and staff to be aware of increased job scam emails during the spring and summer, a time when many students are looking for employment.

Job scam emails are messages about fraudulent job or career opportunities sent by cybercriminals with the goal of extorting money, stealing personal information or soliciting free labour from recipients.

Brock ITS advises users to research the sender of any suspicious email and to call the organization or check its website to verify whether the job opportunity exists. Before responding to any job or career opportunity, check for the following warning signs of a job scam email, including:

• The job offer requires upfront payments such as application fees, start-up costs or equipment purchases, even those with offers of reimbursement.
• The job offer is not posted on the organization’s website.
• The job offer sounds too good to be true or offers unlimited earning potential.
• The job description of a job offer is unusually vague.
• The message pushes recipients to accept the offer immediately.
• The message or job posting has obvious grammatical or spelling errors.
• The message contains suspicious links. Hovering over the links will reveal suspicious URLs.
• The sender does not verify work experience or ask for references.
• The sender uses a public email provider such as Gmail rather than an official organization domain.
• The sender requests to be contacted by text or another email.
• The sender requests personal information such as a driver’s license, social insurance number or credit card number during an interview.

Users are encouraged to contact itsecurity@brocku.ca with questions about job scams or to report a job scam email.