BOSTON -- Secretary of the commonwealth William F. Galvin Monday warned graduates entering the work force from college or graduate school to beware of e-mails soliciting applications for a false position at venture capital firms.

The unsolicited "job offers" are, in fact, from spammers who have cloned the Web sites of legitimate financial firms in order to lure unsuspecting students into providing them with their personal information.

"These notices claim to offer attractive commissions and all-expenses-paid travel. One offer even claims, 'You do not need any previous experience in the financial sphere,'" Galvin said. "It sounds too good to be true, and it is. Falling for the bait leaves you open to identity theft with all its enormous financial and administrative headaches."

Galvin recommended that students and graduates who get the e-mailed unsolicited job offers research the company where it claims to come from and contact that company directly.

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