UTEP Information Security Office Warns of Fraudulent Job Postings

Originally published August 15, 2016

UTEP’s Chief Information Security Officer has issued an advisory to the UTEP community regarding recent reports of fraudulent job postings circulating via email:

“The University of Texas at El Paso Information Security Office (UTEP ISO) has received reports of individuals being contacted by email and offered part-time assistant jobs. The versions being noted claim to be from an independent researcher and/or professor.

Please note however that there are several versions of these fraudulent job offers via email for a variety of job types and a variety of professionals who are extending these offers. Additionally, official UTEP campus positions are posted on UTEP Job websites (e.g., Career Services for Students OR Employment Tab on UTEP’s main webpage for Faculty, Staff and Students), and offers are made via official UTEP email correspondence.

Warning Signs of Fraudulent Job Offer Scams:
· All business correspondence is through chat programs or online via email.
· No official paperwork to fill out or sign.
· No official location or office – all work takes place online and not at a physical location.
· Exclusive usage of personal email (such as gmail.com, Hotmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.) instead of official email accounts.
· Interview is performed online or there is no formal interview.

These emails are fraudulent, are designed to trick the targeted individual(s) into thinking it is an official job offer, and request the user’s personal information. These types of emails should be handled with extreme skepticism. This tactic is a type of “social engineering” that may potentially lead to the compromise of a person’s identity and loss of funds.”

A sample of such posts can be seen here:

A screenshot of an email containing information for a fraudulent part-time job at UTEP. Image courtesy of UTEP Information Security Office.
A screenshot of an email containing information for a fraudulent part-time job at UTEP. Image courtesy of UTEP Information Security Office.