News of Note
In this Issue:
- ISLI Program in Spanish during summer
- Be aware of financial and family scams going around
- Letters So Dear for the ’26s
Happy Monday, Deac families. I have just a couple things to share today:
ISLI Program in Spanish during summer
Deadline for applications: Monday, April 17 2023
Does your student have a rigorous course load during the semester or may need/want to fulfill their language requirement in Spanish in five weeks during the first summer session?
ISLI is an intensive language program to allow students to take SPA 153 and 213 together in Summer Session I. Eligible students must have completed SPA 112, SPA 113, placed into SPA 153 or SPA 154, or want/need to retake SPA 153.
ISLI is 8 credit hours total, 4 from SPA 153 and 4 from SPA 213. For more information, contact Liliana Mendoza-Batista, Associate Professor of the Practice in Spanish, or visit this website.
Be aware of financial and family scams going around
This morning, our Information Security team sent a message to students, faculty, and staff, about protecting yourself from tax season scams; you can read that message here.
In the last week, I have been the recipient of two scams that looked very real (but were very fake). We also had a Wake family report a scam that will be important for families to be aware of.
I received a phone call from my “bank” saying my card had been canceled due to suspicious transactions, and giving me an 800# to call. I looked in my bank app, and there were no secure messages about potential fraud or canceling my card, and no secure messages about same. I checked the bank’s phone number and it was NOT the 800# I was given.
Similarly, I got an email from PayPal about a $500 transaction that I did not make. The email looked legit – not the normal spelling or grammar errors you see in phishing schemes. It was not until I clicked on the sender email – and saw it was an email address of a lot of gobbledygook characters, not a name – that I realized it was a scam.
For the parent scam, a parent got a frantic call at their cell phone allegedly from their student. Their “student” said they were in jail because they had a bad car accident and was arrested for texting while driving, and the other car in the accident contained a woman who was 6 months pregnant and in critical condition, and they thought her baby was going to die. The “student” then said their call time was up and an attorney would call them.
An “attorney” then called the parent’s cell and said they needed $10K in cash so he could get bail set up. The attorney encouraged the parent NOT to call anyone at Wake because it could tarnish their student’s reputation. He said a bail bondsman would call to discuss getting the $10K in cash to them.
Thankfully, the parents in question called their student’s cell phone, and discovered the student was asleep in their residence hall, not in jail, and there had never been an accident. Clearly this is a scam.
I share this for two reasons: one, to make sure if any of you get suspicious calls about your student being in trouble, you can call your student to verify, and not to send any money unless/until you are certain it is legit. Two, I share this to remind your Deacs to be very careful of any emails they get that look like they are from banks, credit cards, PayPal, etc. Some of these look very real and are very sophisticated, but there are scams galore. Our IS team has a list of some of the common phishing scams. And if your student has been a victim, they should report it to University Police.
Letters So Dear for the ’26s
For any P’26 families, you may wish to see this week’s issue of Letters So Dear that your ’26 students received.