ORLANDO, Fla — The Better Business Bureau has a warning for college students heading back to school. Scammers are now targeting college students with more sophisticated scams.
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With dorm essentials, technology, books and clothes, college students are spending money, and scammers are looking to get their hands on it.
Gerry Mendiburt, Director of Investigations for the Better Business Bureau in central Florida said, “The top scam reported to us by students in the past 12 months has been online purchases.”
He warns 30% of reported scams hitting college students are related to online shopping. Most often the scams start with social media ads. Students could be targeted for special supplies or dorm conveniences, or even fake credit card offers aiming to their steal personal information.
Another big one is the apartment rental scam.
“We see this all year long, but students can be particularly vulnerable because they may have a shortened time span to try to find a place to live,” Mendiburt said.
Often, the deals offered for places to rent are almost too good to be true. Make sure you research the property and meet someone in person before sending any money. If they’re asking you to wire money or pay in gift cards, that’s going to be scam.
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Also, watch out for job scams. Students looking for part-time work can be lured in by convenient jobs where they just have to complete a few tasks or have flexible online schedules with high pay. Watch out for any employers that ask for money from you.
Mendiburt said, “If you have to pay anything to work, that’s a huge red flag. And if this job just kind of falls out of the sky, another huge red flag.”
Students and their parents should also be aware of scholarship and grant scams. The scammers will actually send a physical check that turns out to be fake. Once the bogus check is deposited, the scammers will ask the recipient to pay taxes or fees.
A lot of these back-to-school scams targeting college students incorporate phishing where they try to get students to click a link.
Top 3 BBB Scam Tracker Reports by Students from past 12 months:
- 1. Online Purchase-30% of reports / over $1,000,000 reported losses
- 2. Employment-20%
- 3. Phishing-15%
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