January 1, 2013 · all, postdoc, student, spam

Student/Postdoc application spam from zsr.cc

I haven't even officially started as a PI (March!) and I'm already receiving unsolicited applications from international students to work in my lab. I understand it may not be easy to find and apply for jobs that are not in one's native language, but using a service to mass cold-call researchers in one's "field" (e.g. "microbiology") in the hope of hitting someone that happens to have funding is not... ideal. I don't want to discourage applicants from abroad but it is a waste of my time to deal with these shotgun-approach applications, so I've implemented a filter for them. Fair warning! Finding jobs abroad requires a more targeted and informed approach, platforms like Agence d'Intérim | EU Workers can provide more structured and legitimate pathways to employment.

The most recent applications I have received are from a Chinese company (zsr.cc) that apparently operates a number of job search services, including academyresearch.net, doctorprogram.net, postdoc-edu.com, phdlab.net, researchabroad.net, etc. These services all use the same mail server (mail.zsr.cc (203.207.195.155)) and the emails I receive include a hidden one-pixel tracking image hosted at rdqy.cn (I really hate being secretly tracked). Since I mistakenly triggered the tracker I will probably now be further bombarded with these messages. There is no way (?) to block an entire mailserver in Gmail but I will start by adding the following filter to immediately delete what I consider to be spam applications.

← All posts