Student Government re-launched the SG Jobs Board Feb. 27 after the organization put the website on a new operating system to help combat scams that had been plaguing student users.
SG shut down the site in January after receiving a large number of scam complaints.
The SG’s switch to WordPress won’t reduce the number of scams posted on the website, SG Secretary Kevin Sutherland said. But it will make it easier for SG staff to identify and remove the posts.
“A post looks legitimate until you contact the person and they want something sketchy,” Sutherland said. “So, it’s kind of impossible to moderate, but with the new site, it’s much easier to administer.”
Sutherland estimated that with the changes, the turn-around time between contacting SG about a potential scam and the post being removed would be less than 24 hours.
The Career Center received many complaints about scams from students who mistakenly thought the office managed the AUSG Jobs Board.
“We tell students to beware of people who ask you to get money orders. And if they send you a check that doesn’t seem legitimate, we tell [students] to send it back and say that you aren’t comfortable with the situation,” Career Center Customer Service Coordinator Taylor Roosevelt said.
Student Activities and the Career Center received an increase in complaints over the summer from scammed students. They alerted Sutherland, who then began the process of implementing the new operating platform. Sutherland said SG has kept Student Activities updated as the changes have progressed.
“There was a big influx of calls about scams during Welcome Week, and then in October and November,” Roosevelt said. “We never thought it was a huge burden for us to receive them, because we’re able to give the affected students advice about how to recognize scams.”
When Sutherland learned about the increase of fraudulent posts, he realized it was time to upgrade the technology.
“There wasn’t a quick fix,” Sutherland said. “We were stuck between leaving it the way it is so people can use it, or trying to move to a new platform.”
SG Information Technology Director Jake Paul coded the original website three years ago in a computer language that current SG staffers are not familiar with, Sutherland said.
It was difficult to remove posted scams without a detailed knowledge of the coding language, Sutherland said.
SG shut down the site briefly in August, Sutherland said. But with so many students looking to secure jobs before returning to campus, SG decided to wait to shut down the site until high traffic to the site had calmed down.
School of Public Affairs freshman Ryan Millis saw an advertisement in November 2011 for a personal assistant on the jobs board and contacted Adam Cole, a photographer supposedly based in Pa.
Millis’s first task as an assistant was to create a Craigslist account for Cole. After the account was created, Cole mailed Millis a fraudulent check for $970. Millis emailed Cole, informing him that the check had bounced, and Cole sent another check.
The second check initially cleared. But after Millis withdrew the money to transfer it to another account, he was contacted by the bank and told that the check was fraudulent. He ended up losing $2,100 from the scam.
“I didn’t look for a job on Craigslist because they’re notorious for scams,” Millis said. “I thought I could trust Student Government. They’re supposed to be looking out for students.”
Millis has been in contact with Public Safety since January, who told him that they are investigating the matter and that it is unlikely he will be repaid. Millis said he doesn’t believe the changes to the Jobs Board site will prevent this from happening to another student.
“The jobs should be checked for legitimacy before they’re posted,” Millis said. “I think 10 percent of what happened is my fault, but I blame Student Government for the other 90 percent.”
