A nursing student was almost scammed for $500 after receiving an internship opportunity through her UTRGV email. Lieutenant of UTRGV’s Police Department, Van Slusser explains what a scam email is.
Con artists are sending out emails to a whole bunch of people. They’ll have a link in there that will direct that person to provide some personal information.
Slusser adds by saying that most con artists have international bank accounts. Once the victim deposits money into the account the con artist closes it, which makes it difficult for people to get their money back.
Junior Nursing Major, Stephanie Najar says that she thought the opportunity was legitimate because it was for an internship involving her major.
If it would have been for Psychology or for something else, I would have not applied. This was actually referring to my own major. That’s why when I applied, I was like, ‘I don’t think it’s sketchy, I got it through school. They know that its related to something that I am studying for
After she applied, Najar got a call from a “doctor” saying she got the internship to be the personal assistant for a doctor. Najar’s first task was to pay the doctor’s employees while he was on vacation. She received a check through the mail, however her bank couldn’t find the name of the company. When she called the doctor to ask about the check, he told her to pay his employees with her own personal money through Cash App, and he would reimburse her.
I was like what? That to me sounded really sketchy, why would I use Cash App? You said you needed an assistant to go pay people, you could do that yourself.
After her suspicions Najar tried to send $500 through Cash App. The transaction never went through, and the doctor started getting “mad” at her. That’s when it was confirmed to her that it was a scam.
Lieutenant Slusser shares how to identify red flags from student emails.
If you see something from a company that you’re not familiar with that name or it’s not a position you have applied for that could be a red flag.
Slusser says that company’s rarely reach out to a student’s email for a job in which a student didn’t apply for. To report an email from a scam call UTRGV Police at (956) 882-4911.
Reporter Hector Tamez
