If your heart sings when you get an enticing job opportunity in your email, think twice. Scammers often send phishing emails to students that offer “job opportunities” featuring high weekly wages, flexible scheduling and other enticing qualities.
Below is an example of a job scam email, and chances are one might find its way into your inbox. Note the information highlighted in red:
- Generic greeting
- Unidentified university affiliation
- High weekly pay and low hours
- Poor grammar
- Request for a lot of personal information
- Request for illegal information (Employers cannot request information that may be used to discriminate against potential candidates. Some include but are not limited to age, sex and race.)
- The signature contains no identifying information
- Requests to click links, attachments or downloads (Never click anything in suspicious emails.)
This is just one example of a job scam — most phishing messages have similar qualities that make them easy to spot. Not sure whether an email is a legitimate job offer? Always check with a reputable source such as the Better Business Bureau to make sure the company exists, and forward any phishy emails to abuse@uwm.edu. Learn more about phishing and other scams at UWM IT’s cybersecurity webpage.
Students seeking a great job are encouraged to visit Handshake or contact the UWM Career Planning and Resource Center directly with questions about legitimate job opportunities.
