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Phishing Emails and Other Scams

Greetings, international students!

I wanted to check in with you and give you an important alert about several scams that are targeting individuals with an “.edu” email address.

Representatives from GLACIER Tax Prep (GTP), the tax service for international students serving 老司机传媒, contacted us about a specific scam involving Internal Revenue Service (IRS) impersonation.

In this scam, students and others with an “.edu” email address receive a phishing email that apparently comes from “irs.gov.” The email presents a fake IRS logo and uses subject lines that talk about potential reimbursement relating to your taxes. The email directs students to click on a link and submit personal information. Please note that this type of email is a scam and does not actually come from the IRS. If you have received this email or an email like this, you should NOT click on any link, and you should not give out any personal information.  

GLACIER also sent the following message in regard to this scam:

The IRS asks that individuals who receive such an email to please send it to them. For security reasons, they should not forward the email, rather they should save the email using “save as” and then send that as an attachment to phishing@irs.gov or forward the email as an attachment to phishing@irs.gov.

In addition to this phishing email, I am receiving reports of other scams with similar tactics, and some of these scams seem to focus on international students. In each case, a recognizable institution such as the IRS, Social Security Administration (SSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), or local law enforcement is impersonated in an email or phone call. Typically, aggressive action such as arrest or imprisonment is threatened unless personal information and/or payment is immediately given.

Please remember that the IRS, SSA, FBI, local law enforcement and any other legitimate institution will never email or call you directly and ask you to give up personal information. These institutions will never threaten you with arrest or imprisonment in an email or phone call, and they will never ask you for money in an email or phone call.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about these scams. Also, if you have been affected by a scam, please let me know.

Cordially,

Christian Stuart
Executive Director
Center for On-Campus International Student Services