Hi everyone, I’m a professor and department chair at a state university in an urban area. I regularly get emails about so-called “scholarship opportunities” for students. Each email is almost identical, except for the name of the scholarship (usually named after a Dr.) and the URL. The scholarship focus changes each time, like “for students interested in healthcare” or “for students interested in hospitality.”
When you click on the link, it takes you to a website with a generic template, stock images, and the supposed Dr.’s headshot. If you search for the Dr.'s name, it often matches actual professionals in Missouri (I’m not in Missouri). These people sometimes have legitimate-looking websites and even Yelp reviews, but further digging shows some of them have been involved in COVID-related scams.
The emails include an opt-out link, but selecting it only stops that specific email, and new ones come in within a day or two with slight variations. I delete them as they appear, but I’m curious: how do these scams work? What exactly are they after?