This is really just a rant and a warning to not be stupid like I was. If anyone has any advice that would be much appreciated.
I am a college student and a few days ago I got an email from a former professor of mine about needing an administrative assistant to help organize and submit research proposals. I submitted my resume and was told I got the job, and would need to get electronic supplies to be compatible with the software he used.
Now I’ve since found out that this is a common scam but because the email came from my professor’s real address, I didn’t see this as suspicious. For some more context, the environment of my college is very laid back and several professors have gotten into trouble for not following hiring or payment procedures when getting student employees.
A mobile cheque was sent to me with my college’s name on it. My dad, who previously worked in financial services, also saw the cheque and didn’t see anything suspicious about it. The “professor” said I needed to make the payments in my name or he would get in trouble for spending money meant for a student employee. This cheque did not go through but when I called my bank, they said it was only because my name had been misspelled. He then sent a new cheque which tonight after some closer inspection on my dad’s part definitely did not come from my college.
I was given an initial quote for the equipment at the start of all this, and after looking up the cost of the supplies he listed, it seemed accurate. Then he told me the price had increased because his “supplier” had not accounted for shipping and taxes. The name of the supplier was African but this didn’t seem too odd to me because where I go to school, there is a large immigrant population and I have frequently seen similar names around my college town.
He told me to pay through zelle and cashapp, which I unfortunately did because nothing seemed truly off. I paid a total of $2,000. At one point he suggested I use gift cards and Bitcoin to pay the supplier because of the spending limit on my debit card. I declined both of these payment options because I was starting to get suspicious that he was the one getting scammed.
Then, tonight, he suddenly said the quote for the items had doubled. I had had a weird feeling about what was going on before, but when he said this, every single red flag went up in my head. I asked where this price jump had come from and he replied with a list of items that were totally different from the ones on the original list. He suddenly started to become pretty aggressive in his text messages which was totally unlike how this professor is in real life.
I’ve gotten in contact with my the fraud department of my bank, my school IT department (I’ve seen similar job offers on my school email account from other in-network addresses and never knew they were scams), and am filing a police report. Please always trust your gut because if something ever feels even slightly off, it likely is.
Submitted December 17, 2020 at 04:15AM by anonymaus00 https://ift.tt/3ns9sMb
