this page is under construction, but still useful

We have seen several scams targeting the North Park Community, primarily via email, but also text messages and voice phone calls.

Mailing List Scam

North Park has received a wave of emails from scam companies claiming to have lists of attendees from conferences, contacts that can be used for marketing and recruitment. However, these are not authorized vendors. Business with these companies may result in financial loss and penalties for spamming. Please report these emails using the Phish Alert button in Outlook. For assistance in obtaining legitimate contact lists, please contact University Marketing and Communications (UMC) at UMC@northpark.edu. UMC will work with the appropriate campus partners to identify and obtain valid contact lists for marketing and recruitment purposes.

"Advance fee" scams

A common scam structure is the “advance fee” scam.

1. The scammer always devises a scenario that requires him to send you a large check up front.
2. You deposit it in your personal bank account and it seems OK at first. (Banks are required to give you access to the funds quickly, but it does not prove the check is real)
3. You are instructed to send most of the money to some other account, typically claiming to cover some sort of expense.
4. A few days or weeks later, your bank calls and says that the big check you deposited was fake, and you are on the hook for the whole amount, if you aren’t already overdrawn at that point.
5. Any money you transferred out was your own money. The bank is not liable for trusting that the check you deposited wasn't real.
6. You will probably get additional scam attempts, since you responded to this one.

This same scam plays out in multiple variations:  A job as a “secret shopper”, a “personal assistant”, “international order processor”, or even a job where all you have to do is have advertising on your car. They all involve getting money up front, and they quickly sending most of it somewhere else.

Read more here: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2018/09/anatomy-fake-check-scam

Nice Infographic:

Use of Text Messages

Scammers increasingly ask for your mobile phone number, and move the conversation from email to text messaging. They know that once you start texting them, your email provider can do little to filter or block them.

If you've already given you mobile number to a scammer, be alert for scams via texts or phone calls. You can report scam texts to the FTC: 
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0350-text-message-spam

If you are an AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint or Bell subscriber, you can report spam texts to your carrier by copying the original message and forwarding it to the number 7726 (SPAM), free of charge.