College students are packing up to head back to school for the fall semester, and scammers can’t wait. They have a number of schemes planned to steal students’ money and personal information.
The first that we’ll mention is an “imposter scam” that’s designed specifically for college students. The scheme begins when students receive an email or text that is allegedly from the school’s “Financial Department.” The message doesn’t mention the name of the school, and the URL doesn’t correspond with the college’s web domain. Those are two red flags that should tip off recipients that the message is fake.
According to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), this scam asks recipients to click on a link and log in with their user name and password. If they comply, the scammer steals their login information and may also download some malware at the same time.
Fake credit card offers
College freshmen may be bombarded with credit card offers. The vast majority are from legitimate lenders, but scammers have gotten into that game and are sending out phony credit card offers. A student applying for one of these phony offers will be asked to provide a huge amount of personal information, including a Social Security number.
Instead of responding to an unsolicited offer, students are better off researching the best card for their needs and applying to the lender directly. A good place to do some research is the ConsumerAffairs guide to the…
