Housing Scams

What is a Housing Scam?

It is an email scam that impersonates U-M housing staff and aims to induce the recipient to sign a fake "housing contract" and then make a "rent" payment to the scammer. There may be a fake “invoice.”

How it Works

This scam starts with an email impersonating a U-M Housing staff member. Some tricks used to make the email look legitimate include:

  • The email is personalized with the name of the recipient in the salutation.
  • The message mentions the Regents of the University to gain legitimacy. Housing contracts are not sent to Regents of the University.
  • The name of the sender is of a legitimate U-M staff or faculty. The sender’s name is in the MCommunity directory, but the email address is not umich.edu.
  • The email signature uses a Professor title to make the email look legitimate. Professors are not Hall Directors and would not coordinate university housing.

What to Watch Out For

The scammers request the recipient's assistance in a way that asks for personal information (complete an Undergraduate Housing Allotment Form) and/or financial remittances (pay deposit or rent). The following should be considered a red flag:

  • Non umich.edu email address of sender. All official communication from the University of Michigan will come from senders with umich.edu email addresses. Beware that in some cases the sending email address may be spoofed, which means that it will look exactly like a real email umich.edu address. Learn How to Spot a Spoof.
    Note: U-M housing application email is sent from [email protected] or [email protected].
  • Unusual job titles and responsibilities. Regents of the University processing housing contracts or professors performing the responsibilities of Hall Directors are all an indication that the message is not coming from a legitimate source.
  • Typos. The email may contain typos and inconsistent capitalization.
  • Requests to make payment using non-refundable methods like wire transfer, payment apps like Zelle, Cashapp, Venmo, cryptocurrency.
  • Any requests that do not follow the official U-M housing process. All information (application, housing placement, contract) is available in the M Housing Portal and all housing-related billing is managed through Wolverine Access.

How to Protect You and U-M

  • Do not reply. If you receive a suspicious message that appears to be from someone at U-M, view Spot Phishing and Scams for tips on recognizing scams. 
  • If you find obvious signs of a scam, follow guidance in Report Phishing and other Email Abuse and then delete it.
  • Verify and Contact. If there are no obvious signs of phishing but the email content is suspicious (offers of jobs you have not applied for, or contact from someone you do not know, for example), look up that sender's contact information in the MCommunity directory and email or call them yourself instead of using the reply-to in email or the information provided in the email.

If You Get Caught

If you are concerned that you have given personal information or payment to someone attempting to scam you:

  • Students who have fallen victim to one of these scams, which resulted in loss of money, should contact the University of Michigan Police Department at 734-763-1131 or text 377911.
  • See our Identity Theft page if your personal information was compromised.
  • See What To Do if You Were Scammed from the FTC for information on what to do if you were scammed out of money or personal information.

Scam Examples

Please note that to protect the privacy of faculty, staff, and students, actual names and uniqnames may be removed or replaced with generic terms or marked as redacted.

Examples of email subject lines

  • Umich First Year Students Late Housing Registration

  • Acknowledgement of Signed Contract

  • Corrections on your Housing Contract""Fwd: Customer: CC34497 Invoice: 671525

  • Re: Allington Housing Contract

  • Signed Housing Contract Acknowledgement

  • U-M Freshman Housing Contract

  • M Housing Contract Acknowledgement

  • U-M Student M Housing Contract - Signed

Example 1 of fraudulent housing staff email

From: [redacted] <[email protected]>

Subject: Umich First Year Students Late Housing Registration

Hello,

I am  Professor [redacted] at the University of Michigan. I have been instructed by the Office of Students Affairs and the Michigan Housing Community to guide you in securing suitable housing accommodation here at Umich.

Kindly reply with your name and student ID along with a date and time convenient to you to discuss your information, which will determine how we will implement your housing.

I will be open to answer any questions you may have regarding your accommodation. After which you will proceed to sign the Undergraduate Housing Allotment Registration Form which I will send to you at the end of our discussion via mail.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Example 2 of fraudulent housing staff email

From: [redacted] <[redacted]@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: Allington Housing Contract

Hello [redacted],

I hereby acknowledge that you have signed your M Housing Contract, which will now be delivered to the Regents of the University of Michigan.

After you have paid your housing rent, your contract will be made available in your housing application on your school portal when the housing allotment list is released.

In order for the Regent of the University of Michigan to process your M Housing invoice through the Undergraduate Room and Board Rates, I will forward to you the Undergraduate Housing Allotment Form to fill out.

Please ensure you fill out this form as soon as it gets to you to enable the regents to process your contract and implement your housing at Umich Residence Hall.

Congratulations on your admission to the University of Michigan. I look forward to having you on campus.

Professor [redacted]

Hall Director

University of Michigan