International students face unique challenges navigating employment opportunities, particularly in unfamiliar legal and regulatory environments. Along with pressure to secure income or experience, this makes them prime targets for employment scams. These scams not only cause financial harm, but can also jeopardize immigration status and future career prospects.
What to do
Employment related scams are constantly changing and becoming more sophisticated and they are hard to stop. Just as quickly as one scam operation is taken down, another may pop up.
Contact the WashU Center for Career Engagement for advice and review of any suspicious job offers.
WashU’s Office of Information Security has a Phishing Alert posted about a job related scam.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has published the following guidance for avoiding a job scam:
“Before you accept a job offer, and certainly before you pay for one, take these steps to protect yourself from job scams:
- Do an online search. Look up the name of the company or the person who’s hiring you, plus the words “scam,” “review” or “complaint.” You might find out they’ve scammed other people.
- Talk to someone you trust. Describe the offer to them. What do they think? This also helps give you vital time to think about the offer.
- Don’t pay for the promise of a job. Legitimate employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job. Anyone who does is a scammer.
- Never depend on a “cleared” check. No legitimate potential employer will ever send you a check and then tell you to send part of the money to someone else or buy gift cards with it. That’s a fake check scam. The check will bounce, and the bank will want you to repay the amount of the fake check.”
Learn more
If the job listing you found seems to good to be true, it just might be. Watch this short video from WashU’s Center for Career Engagement to learn more.
Common Scam Tactics
- Fake job offers: Scammers pose as legitimate employers or recruiters, often using professional-looking websites or email addresses. They offer enticing jobs with high pay and flexible conditions, frequently requiring an upfront “processing fee” or “equipment cost.” The scammer may include recognizable logos from prominent employers in the U.S. and they may spoof email addresses from real human resources (HR) employees to make the job offer appear real. They may even conduct mock interviews or ask the student to complete fake questionnaires.
Scammers pretending to represent a company may even contact you in your native language to entice you and make the scam seem more believable. - Fake Onboarding: A fake onboarding process is sometimes part of the scam. That process may include one or more of the following steps:
- The scammer extends a job offer letter that seems real to the student and schedules an onboarding meeting.
- During onboarding, a victim is told they will have to buy computer equipment from a company-approved site. This site may seem real, with a checkout and invoice process, and PDF payment receipts.
- The victim is told to pay for the equipment with their personal funds. At this point, the scammer may try non-traditional forms of payment, such as Zelle, Venmo or Bitcoin, in order to get access to the funds faster.
- If the victim does not have enough money, they may be sent a check to cash at a bank, with a sender address that includes “INC or LLC” to appear legitimate. The check may clear initially, and the victim will have access to funds, but the check will later bounce. This is where the financial scam occurs, as the victim paid for equipment they will never receive and the scammer has obtained the victim’s funds.
- Check Cashing or Refund Scams: Students are sent fraudulent checks or instructed to deposit money into personal accounts, then return a portion to the scammer, only to discover later the check was invalid and they are liable for the funds.
- Phishing for Personal Data: These scams collect personal information, including passport numbers, SEVIS ID numbers, Social Security Numbers or bank account details pretending to be part of a job application or background check.
- Illegal Work Solicitations: Certain scams offer jobs that violate immigration status restrictions (e.g., unauthorized off-campus work) which can threaten a student’s immigration status if discovered by authorities.