Sophomore Sena Namkung said she was excited after receiving an email in October 2022 from Ithaca College’s Department of Biology offering her a high-paying job. She later discovered the offer was a phishing attempt, but not before falling prey to the scam.
“I got really excited because it’s like a lot of money for the work, and my friends were like, ‘I hate to tell you this, but I think this is a scam,’” Namkung said. “I already was asked to and wrote a whole full-length page paper for [the scammers].”
Namkung’s experience is not unique — students’ inboxes are often the target of email scams promising high-paying jobs, which recently have impersonated the college’s employees. In Namkung’s case, she said the email she received was from someone claiming to be a recruiter for a remote administrative assistant job in the college’s Department of Biological Sciences. The Department of Biological Sciences does not exist at the college but the Department of Biology does. The scammer claimed the job paid $350 a week and the email was signed by Williams Wenmouth, claiming to be a professor and director in the department. Wenmouth Williams is a real professor emeritus in the Department of Media Arts, Sciences and Studies. The scammer switched the first and last name of Williams to sign the email.
According to CNBC, a study by information security provider SlashNext said that in 2022 there was a 61% increase since 2021 in…
