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Scams Targeting International Students
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Each year, there are unfortunately a number of scams targeted at international students. Read below about avoiding scams throughout the year and two scams that are targeting international students during this busy and stressful time of the year.Please remember these following tips if you receive an email from an organization instructing you to give personal or bank information. Remember that if you have any questions about the legitimacy of an email request, please contact ISSS; we would rather you be safe than sorry.
- Double check the email address. At first glance, fraudulent messages can look like they’re from a legitimate company/organization, but on closer inspection are from a hotmail or other public email account.
- Double check the URL of websites and links. Companies always use clear URLs like http://www.irs.gov/Refunds. Scam sites and links usually have long addresses using special characters like &^%%%&*$£”
- Anything sent from a government agency should have a .gov website. For example, the official IRS website is www.irs.gov, NOT www.irs.com. This applies to any communication from USCIS as well.
- Look at the wording used. If it doesn’t read like a request from a legitimate company, it probably is not.
- Avoid requests that sound vague, unlikely or too casual, such as “our database has been corrupted, please resend your details”, or “recent legislation means we require this information”.
- Look for grammar and spelling mistakes. Scam emails are often electronically translated from different languages, resulting in obvious spelling errors and odd sentence structures.
Status
- Workflow Status: Published
- Created By: Emily Dolezal
- Created: 04/23/2013
- Modified By: Fletcher Moore
- Modified: 10/07/2016
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