Hello Gary and Ecolog,
I'm not sure that you are describing a phishing scam; if it is a scam,
it is an extremely sophisticated one. Many agencies (e.g., USGS)
require a pre-submission review for manuscripts, in order to ensure
quality prior to submission to a journal. Because of the difficulty in
garnering timely reviews, offering small stipends is becoming
increasingly common. The e-mails you have shared clearly indicate that
they are looking for a review PRIOR to submission to the journal, so
talking to the journal about their review policies will not help you
determine if the request is legitimate. I strongly recommend that you
contact the colleague that you know on this paper, and ask him/her to
verify whether he or she gave your name to the EPA (or an EPA co-author)
as a potential reviewer, and if so who the person is at EPA who is
coordinating the review. If the names check out and you decide to do
the review, be aware that if you want to be paid you will probably have
to provide your Social Security number... if this makes you nervous, you
can always waive the payment.
Sincerely,
Brian Mitchell
National Park Service - Northeast Temperate Network Program Manager
University of Vermont - Adjunct Assistant Professor
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 09:39:47 -0500
From: "Gary N. Ervin" <[email protected]>
Subject: likely phishing attempt targeting academics
Dear Ecologgers:
I wanted to alert you all to a potential phishing effort in which I was
recently involved.
Last week I was contacted by someone with an "epamail.epa.gov" email address
about reviewing a manuscript written by someone whom I knew worked in the area of the
supposed manuscript topic. In fact, I had corresponded with that person relatively
recently. In the initial email, there was no contact information for the person
requesting the review, other than the email address, there was no mention of the journal
to which the manuscript had been submitted, but there was an offer of $100 for reviewing
the manuscript. Text of that email (with identifying information removed) is here:
********************************
Gary,
Your name was given to me by <AUTHOR> to ask if you would have the time to review his manuscript
entitled "<TITLE>," by <AUTHORS>.
If you are available to do the review, we can compensate you $100.00 for your
time. Please advise me if this is agreeable to you. If so, I will send you a
Conflict of Interest form which needs to be completed before the manuscript can
be sent and I will also need a mailing address and telephone number in which to
send the manuscript.
Once I receive the Conflict of Interest form back from you I can put in a
Purchase Req. and you will receive payment upon completion of the manuscript.
Thank you and look forward to hearing from you,
<PERSON REQUESTING THE REVIEW>
********************************
********************************
I was a bit curious about this request so I responded that I would be willing
to review in order to receive more information. I also specifically asked to
what journal the paper had been submitted. The response from the requester was:
********************************
Gary,
Thank you for agreeing to be a reviewer for <AUTHOR>'s manuscript. The journal
he is considering for submission is Ecological Applications. At this time I need to
forward to you the Conflict of Interest Form (see below) which you will need to fill
out and return to me for the purpose of setting up payment once the review is
completed and also, I'll prepare a copy of the manuscript and get it ready to mail to
you.
Again, thank you for your time and I'll let <AUTHOR> know you have agreed to
review his manuscript.
<PERSON REQUESTING THE REVIEW>
********************************
********************************
Attached to that email was a simple form that included some text pasted from
EPA guidelines about conflicts of interest for persons being paid on government
contracts, a few lines to describe any potential conflicts of interest, and an
area to provide my signature, date, and of course, social security number.
The Editor-in-Chief of Ecol Apps has confirmed that they still do not pay for
reviews, and my query to the requester of this review about why the journal
changed their policies remains unanswered, as expected. The person requesting
this review also is not listed among the editorial board for the journal.
Gary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary N Ervin, Associate Professor
and Graduate Coordinator
Department of Biological Sciences
PO Box GY
Mississippi State, MS 39762 USA
on the web at: http://www.msstate.edu/courses/ge14/
for parcel delivery:
Department of Biological Sciences
114 Harned Biology
295 Lee Boulevard
Miss State, MS 39762
Office: A212 HPCC Building
Tel.: (662) 325-1203
lab : (662) 325-7937
FAX : (662) 325-7939
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
