Penn e-mail accounts have spam filters, but they may also be in need of scam filters.
Students have recently become targets of two different online scams: an advance-fee scam and a fraudulent e-mail from a fake employer.
The advance-fee scam involved the sale of textbooks, according to Penn Police Deputy Chief of Investigations Mike Morrin.
The scammer would purchase a textbook online from a student and send a check for a sum substantially greater than the price of the book.
He or she would then say the check had been sent mistakenly and ask the student to wire the difference through Western Union. The scammer's check would then bounce.
The scam targeted four or five international students, although none fell for it, according to Morrin.
"Most of the people targeted might not have been familiar with our bank systems," he said.
In an e-mail, the Division of Public Safety urged students to follow security measures to ensure safe online transactions, such as the use of PayPal to protect the sale of items.
The e-mail warned against using money transfer services such as Western Union to send cash. These services are untraceable and "not sensitive to the needs of law enforcement," Morrin said.
This advance-fee scam is a variation of the well-known Nigerian scam, in which the target is persuaded to send money in the hope of receiving larger sums later, according to Morrin.
"It started years ago when Nigerian oil profits ran up," he said. "It gets very little investigation here."
The second scam students faced was a fraudulent e-mail that appeared to come from a potential employer.
According to an e-mail from Career Services, the fraudulent e-mail requested a student's cover letter, transcript and 300-word writing sample.
"I have never seen anything like this before," Career Services director Patricia Rose said. "Students should be very careful about where they send their materials."
The fraudulent e-mail was sent from the address "theblackstonegroup@in.com."
The scammer could have been after the student's personal information, DPS spokeswoman Stef Cella said.
She warned students against giving such identifiers as Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses in response to unsolicited e-mails.
"All persons should be aware that providing any personal information in response to an unsolicited e-mail can compromise their identity, which creates the risk of [identity] theft and other financial issues," the DPS e-mail said.
