Financial scams continue to target students, faculty, and staff through email, text messages, phone calls, social media, and online advertisements. Criminals often impersonate trusted organizations, employers, financial institutions, government agencies, or even colleagues in an attempt to steal money or personal information.
Understanding how these scams work can help you identify warning signs and avoid becoming a victim.
Common Types of Financial Scams
Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin Scams
Scammers promote fake investment opportunities that promise guaranteed returns that seem too good to be true, or "once-in-a-lifetime" profits. Victims are instructed to transfer funds to cryptocurrency accounts, often after being contacted through social media, messaging apps, or other online advertisements.
Warning Signs:
- Guaranteed or unusually high returns
- Pressure to invest immediately
- Requests to send funds using cryptocurrency
- Confusion or lack of transparency around withdrawing funds or "profits"
Employment Scams
Malicious hackers also advertise fake jobs, often targeting students seeking part-time or remote work.
Common scenarios include:
- Being asked to deposit cheques into your personal bank account and send funds elsewhere
- Receiving guaranteed job offers without any interviews
- Requests for banking information, gift card purchases, or money transfers
Banking and Financial Institution Scams
Scammers can also attempt to impersonate banks and claim there is "suspicious activity" identified on an account.
They may attempt to pressure you to do any of the following:
- Provide account numbers, passwords, or verification codes
- Direct you to fraudulent websites
- Give them remote access to computers or mobile devices
- Move funds to a "safe account"
Gift Card Scams
Cyber criminals often impersonate managers, colleagues, or family members and urgently request gift card purchases.
Gift card scams often begin with an email that appears to come from a trusted colleague, manager, or senior leadership. Malicious hackers commonly use lookalike or throwaway email addresses and rely on spoofing the display name alone to make messages appear legitimate. They will ask victims to quickly purchase gift cards on behalf of the trusted personnel and share the activation codes. Always verify both the sender's name and the actual email address, be cautious of urgent requests involving money or gift cards, and verify unexpected financial requests through a trusted communication channel before taking action.
No legitimate organization (including 91亚色) will request payment through gift cards.
How to Protect Yourself
The following practices can help protect you from most financial scams:
- Be cautious of unsolicited emails, texts, phone calls, or social media messages involving money.
- Never share passwords, authentication codes, banking credentials, or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) approval requests/codes.
- Verify requests through a trusted communication channel before taking any action.
- Be skeptical of urgent messages that pressure you to act immediately.
- Research and verify all investment opportunities before sending money.
- Use strong passwords and MFA on all important accounts.
- Monitor bank and credit card statements regularly for unauthorized transactions.
If You Think You Have Been Targeted
If you believe you may have responded to a scam:
- Stop all communication with the suspected scammer.
- Contact your bank or financial institution immediately.
- Change passwords for affected accounts.
- Review account activity for unauthorized transactions.
- Report suspicious messages or requests targeting your 91亚色 accounts to the Information Security team.
Reporting Scams Targeting 91亚色
If you have been targeted by a scam that involves your 91亚色 account, 91亚色 systems, or any 91亚色-related communications, please contact:
- Information Security Team: infosec@yorku.ca
Always remember, if an offer sounds too good to be true, creates a sense of urgency, or requests unusual payment methods, it's highly likely to be a scam. Fraudsters always count on people reacting quickly, it's always worth taking a moment to verify before acting.