National Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Fraudulent Job Offers

Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 9:18am

TO: Campus Community
FR: Thomas Dixon, Chief Information Security Officer, San Francisco Bay Region Network

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, an opportunity to highlight common cybersecurity threats and share practical steps we can all take to protect ourselves and our campus community.

Finding a job or internship can be exciting, especially when an opportunity offers flexible hours, remote work, and good pay. Unfortunately, cybercriminals take advantage by creating fake job postings and sending fraudulent job offers.

These scams often appear to come from legitimate employers, university departments, or individuals offering employment opportunities. Their goal is to trick you into providing personal information, sending money, or making purchases under the impression that you're starting a legitimate job.

While some fraudulent job offers can look convincing, there are warning signs that can help you identify a potential scam.

Here are just a few of the possible signs of a fraudulent job offer:

• An unexpected job offer promising high pay, flexible hours, or remote work with little experience required.
• An offer of employment without a formal interview or a legitimate hiring process.
• Someone claiming to represent a university or employer but communicating through a personal email address or asking you to move the conversation to a different email, phone number, or messaging app.
• A request to provide personal information, such as your address, Social Security number, or banking information, before you've verified the employer and the position.
• A job requiring you to purchase gift cards, electronics, or other items on behalf of your employer, even if they promise to reimburse you.
• An employer offering to send you a check or advance payment to purchase equipment, supplies, or other items.
  Someone claiming they are unavailable to meet or interview but insisting you can begin working immediately.
• An employer pressuring you to respond quickly or accept an offer before you've had an opportunity to verify its legitimacy.

Before accepting a job offer, take a moment to verify that the opportunity is legitimate. Look for the position through an official university or employer website and contact the organization directly using contact information you find independently. Be cautious of unexpected employment offers, even when they appear to come from a familiar organization.

If you receive an email that you suspect may be a fraudulent job offer, please report it to the Information Security Office by submitting a Security Reporting ticket or forwarding the email to support@sfbrn.calstate.edu. We can help determine whether the message is legitimate and take appropriate steps to protect other members of the campus community.

If you've already responded to a suspicious job offer or provided personal information, please contact the Information Security Office for guidance.

This week, the following webinars are being provided across the CSU system:

Friday, October 23 from 10-11 a.m.: Using Copilot and MS 365 Securely: AI Best Practices for End Users with Andrea Tseng-Rioux, Sr. Workforce AI Specialist at Microsoft

Other upcoming presentations can be found at Cybersecurity Awareness 2026 Events | CSU.