American graduates are massively scammed for money with fake job vacancies

Experts warn of a new wave of scams targeting college graduates in North America. Cybercriminals send fake job offers in the field of biosciences and medicine to yesterday’s students in order to then swindle money from gullible and still completely “green” specialists.

As found out in company Proofpoint, dealing with cybersecurity, the last such mass phishing mailing was carried out in May-June – just in time for graduation season. The letters came ostensibly on behalf of biotech and medical organizations and contained invitations to an interview for remote work with data.

While the details of the alleged interviews are not known, the scheme is a variant of the so-called “advance payment scam”. The attackers offer the victim to pay an advance, which will allegedly go to the technical equipment of their workplace, and then disappear along with the money.

Proofpoint notes that similar job ads in biotech have been appearing since March. However fraud under the guise of employment – a well-known and popular way of deception for many years.

“These scammers play on the feelings of people who are looking for work. They offer a position, but at the same time they ask to pay for the equipment and software necessary for it. And then they just steal this money, ”Proofpoint experts warn.

It is especially dangerous that the attack came just at the time of mass layoffs in large IT companies, which affected thousands of various professionals who are now desperately looking for work.

Students are a good target for scammers. After all, they are strongly interested in employment and are most likely to believe offers of remote employment from dubious letters. Even those whose native language is English may not notice the signs of a scam.

The emails come from fictitious email addresses that mimic existing organizations with subject lines like “About the interview.” The names of the senders are also written off from real specialists, who can be easily found on LinkedIn. In some of these mailings, the attackers even use basic information about the victim in order to personalize their message as much as possible.

Attachments to such letters include a list of required software and hardware, usually worth several thousand dollars. The victim is either asked to pay the invoice before going to work, promising compensation from the first salary, or is immediately sent a fictitious check for the same amount, from which the victim will not be able to withdraw any funds later.

Proofpoint suggests that attackers can also request cryptocurrency, allegedly for the delivery of the necessary equipment. Although the current wave was dominated by biomedical topics, similar schemes are used in other areas.

Experts remind that real employers never require prepayment or advances. Even if we are talking about a very real and prestigious company.

Such attacks are carried out by both private scammers for profit and state cybercriminal groups. Last year, it was reported that North Korean hackers were mass-sending emails about bogus jobs and pay raises to infect victims’ computers with malware to steal cryptocurrencies.

Similar complaints have come from students at Harvard University and other major organizations. The FBI has also warned repeatedly about fraudulent job postings being used to scam job seekers in Southeast Asia.