Scam emails continue to flood into students’ inboxes
UTM provides resources to defend against phishing, scams, and malicious messages, but student emails are still susceptible to infiltration and fraud.
Students at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) are all too familiar with scam emails. These messages often arrive unexpectedly, offering convenient and high-paying jobs or threatening to cancel your enrolment unless you act immediately. They are designed to panic students into replying before thinking twice, preying on the desperate, tired, and uninformed.
Many of them seem to come from employers at the university itself, using seemingly official logos, professional wording, and subject lines like “Part Time Assistant Job” and “Urgent – Account Suspension Notice.”
Even students who don’t lose money still feel the effect of scam emails. The Medium interviewed Ishan Paul, a fourth-year student and residence don at UTM, for his perspective on the situation.
He explained that the pressure these messages create can worsen academic anxiety. “Midterms are going on throughout the whole year. There are always tests and assessments. Triggers like these can really push someone over the edge or negatively contribute to that stress.”
First years at greater risk
As a residence don, Paul works with and offers guidance to many first-year and international students. He noted that confusion is common among students who aren’t used to the university’s systems and must deal with early information overload.
“Newer students aren’t fully familiar with the governance of U of T and what kind of departments interact with each other. They’re not sure if they’re going to receive an email about charges not being paid, or how these charges are going to be paid.”
Paul acknowledged that the sense of urgency in scam emails can be particularly distressing and prompt students to act hastily. “A lot of international students have their parents paying through the portals and having their finances managed by someone else,” he said. “That kind of sudden email or urgency can make things spiral out of control.”
He further stated that several of his students have narrowly avoided falling for scams, and even after he helps them through it and verifies that it is a scam, they are hesitant to fully trust him, asking, “Are you sure? I don’t want to get in trouble because of your opinion.”
To reassure his students, Paul always informs them when he receives a scam email by screenshotting the scam and warning them to disregard it.
Even with Campus Safety and the Service Desk being available to help students in such cases, Paul believes awareness and accessibility can improve. “It would be helpful to have a better system; maybe more in-person outreach like tabling, and a stronger email-filtering system that looks at emails being mass-sent from unauthorized sources,” he said.
Staying alert
Students need to remain vigilant and report suspicious messages. According to U of T’s website, some important things to look out for include:
- Unsolicited job offers from people or companies you have never contacted.
- Generic greetings, like “Dear Student,” instead of using your name.
- Poor grammar or random capitalizations like “Job Opportunity”.
- Emails from free email providers like Gmail, instead of an official professional domain.
- Unrealistic job offers. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- Asking for money via E-Transfer or sensitive personal information like your Social Insurance Number (SIN), financial information, student number, etc.
- Threats. The University will never fail to provide prior notice, and will probably send two to three emails well in advance of the deadline.
When in doubt, pause before you click. A quick Google search can verify the sender’s email address and company. Don’t click any suspicious links that are meant to redirect you to a payment or job confirmation.
If you suspect an email is fraudulent or have already clicked a suspicious link, contact:
- UTM Career Centre: (905) 828-5451 (careers.utm@utoronto.ca, Davis Building, Student Services Hub)
- Campus Safety: (905) 828-5200 (DV3116)
- I&ITS Service Desk: (905) 569-4300 (CCT Atrium (905) 569 4300, helpdesk.utm@utoronto.ca).
Additional resources on how to avoid fraudulent job postings and scams can be found on the CLNx Casual Job Board.
