All posts by Rylan Czuczman

Scam warming – BEWARE

It has been brought to our attention that Indian students are again being targeted by scammers allegedly calling on behalf of the “Home Office”. They call the students and intimidate them, threatening with arrest and deportation, claiming that some formalities were not fulfilled by the student at the time of arrival in the UK and therefore the student was now a “criminal immigrant” and must apply for an AR (Alien Resident card).

The scammers ask for personal and financial details, and intimidate students into paying them large sums of cash via gift cards. They threaten students with arrest if the money is not paid or if the information is shared with anyone.

BEWARE – This is a very sophisticated scam! If they were to call you and you challenge their authenticity they may tell you to Google their phone number and verify their identity. They will have set up fake webpages and links to deceive you. They can be very forceful and authoritative in their tone, even more so if they sense that you are scared.

British Police or Home Office never contact students in this manner, and they never ask for money over the phone.

If you receive a call of this nature, please do not give out any personal details nor confirm any details they already have (passport number, address, family details).

Please do not download any software they ask you to on your phone or computer.

Cut the phone call and inform the police immediately.

If you are unsure, please feel free to contact International Experience Team on internationalexperience@shu.ac.uk or call us on 0114 225 3813.

If you have already been a victim of this scam – please contact Hallam Union Advice Centre (advicecentre@shu.ac.uk or call 0114 225 4148) as a matter of urgency.

Celebrating British culture through football

Our International Representative Sheriff Muhammed has organised a friendly football match between British and international students.

Football is a huge part of British culture, and this event is a way of celebrating this as featured in our British Cultural Month schedule of events for November.

If you are interested in playing on Friday 10 November, between 2-4pm up at the Pearson building at Collegiate Campus, please contact us at internationalexperience@shu.ac.uk. Everybody is welcome to come and cheer on the teams!

Keep up-to-date with the SHU GoGlobal team

We will be changing our approach to sending you information about activities and projects that you can get involved in, but there are a number of ways that you can keep up-to-date with SHU GoGlobal.

Our GoGlobal newsletter will be sent on a more ad-hoc basis to promote certain events and projects rather than a monthly edition.

We will therefore be keeping you up-to-date through our Facebook account, and you can like our page now for regular updates from our team. We will also be keeping our blog up-to-date with all the information that you’ll need while you’re at Sheffield Hallam.

Trip to Liverpool/Beatles Museum

Liverpool is a World Heritage city with plenty of historic and cultural visitor attractions.

Roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour, a trip to the cosmopolitan city of Liverpool, including tickets to the famous Beatles Museum.

Buy your ticket for £24 at tinyurl.com/LiverpooltripNov.

Meet at the main University entrance on Saturday 11 November. This trip will be from 8am–7pm.

Conversation Club – British popular culture

Conversation Club is one of the best ways to meet new friends in Sheffield. It is fun, friendly and free refreshments are served.

Conversation Club on Wednesday 1 November between 5–6.30pm in Owen 1025 will be themed to fit into our British Cultural Month schedule of events, and will incorporate British festivals and celebrations such as Bonfire Night and St George’s Day.

Book your place now on UniHub.

 

The Hallam Careers Fair

On Thursday 26 October between 11am–3pm, Sheffield Hallam will host over 140 of the best local and national graduate employers – this is a great chance to find out what they have to offer and to get noticed!

There is a range of opportunities on offer from a variety of disciplines, with companies offering summer internships, placements and graduate roles.

Companies attending include international corporations such as IBM, Unilever, Rolls-Royce and many many more, and is a great opportunity to gather information, network and seek out what they have to offer you as a graduate.

You can find the Hallam Careers Fair Brochure here, and more information can be found on the Facebook event page.

Walk to Heeley City Farm

pigs

Join us on a short walk to Heeley City Farm on Sunday 15 October, to visit a friendly farm with an environment centre.

Meet at the main University entrance at 10am, with us returning at around 2pm. The farm is about 30 minutes walk from the City Campus and the trip is completely free of charge!

There’s a great range of activities on offer, so come on down and experience farm life in the UK!

Book your place online now.

Scam alert – phishing email warning

A significant number of our students received a phishing email purporting to be from our Finance Department, but originating from student email addresses at another university.  The email said they had been awarded a grant and they needed to click on a link to go to a form to complete their details.

The link took them to a fake university-branded webpage, hosted on a compromised server in the US. The web page asked them for a large amount of personal data, including date of birth, mother’s maiden name, bank card details etc.  Further, on submit it took them to a subsequent page branded to the bank that they had entered, asking for further information such as telephone passcode, last transactions, etc. In other words, everything necessary to steal identity and get past bank online and telephone security checks. A sophisticated attack.

This was clearly targeted at our students, as the site was branded and no obvious reference to other universities on the compromised web server, but it is possible that others will see similar attacks in the next few days.

 The original email header looked like:

 Example fake (phishing) email

From: University of Xxxx <xxxxx@students.xxxx.ac.uk>
Date: 22 September 2017 at 13:38:24 BST
To: xxxxxxx@xxxx.ac.uk
Subject: You have been awarded a student grant

If you receive an email similar to the above, then please do not reply, click on any links or give any personal information.

If you are unsure, please feel free to contact the International Experience Team on internationalexperience@shu.ac.uk or call us on 0114 225 3813 for further advice.

Exciting new Commonwealth scholarship opportunities in Singapore

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore is offering four fully-funded Commonwealth PhD Scholarships – find out how to apply for this exciting opportunity!

This great opportunity is designed to nurture future leaders, with an emphasis on those interested in science and engineering. Four scholarships are available in any research specialism offered by NTU – you will not only have a fully-funded scholarship, but also benefit from international experience and cross-cultural exchange when studying and researching abroad.

Eligibility and how to apply

  • Citizens of any Commonwealth country are eligible to apply, excluding Singapore citizens and Singapore permanent residents
  • The scholarships fund full tuition fees, a living allowance of 2000 Singapore dollars per month and a resettlement & airfare grant of 2500 Singapore dollars.
  • Applications are open now and close on 31 January 2018. The scholarship start date will be August 2018.
  • More information on the terms and conditions can be found on the NTU website. Please read these before applying.

Applicants must complete the online NTU graduate research programme application and indicate on the form that they also wish to apply for the Commonwealth Scholarship. Applications should be made via the NTU website.

Trip to Graves Park and Bishop’s House

Join us for a trip to Sheffield’s biggest park!

There is plenty for you to visit and explore, including formal gardens, a rare breeds farm, ancient woodland, a cafe and more.

We will take the bus there so please bring £4 for a return bus ticket. You must register your interest with us here before the trip.

Meet our student crew at the Main University entrance,  Level 5 Owen building on Sunday 8 October at 10am, returning around 2pm.