Scammers are targeting Iowa college freshmen, and they need to be on-guard for suspicious emails, texts and calls.
Lisa Schiller, at the Better Business Bureau, says crooks see students in their late teens who are on their own for the first time as easy, vulnerable targets.
“They have enough on their mind, worrying about tuition and purchasing supplies and new environments for some of them,” Schiller says. “They don’t need to worry about scams, but unfortunately, it’s reality.”
Schiller says parents should prep their college kids for things like high-interest credit card offers, shady landlords and other common traps. She says criminals can tailor their usual scams to better lure in college students.
“A phone call, an e-mail, or a text message from a scammer claiming to be from the school’s financial office or the bursar or the registrar’s office,” she says. “They’ll threaten that a student might face legal trouble unless they pay overdue tuition immediately.”
That’s an imposter scam, a common tactic used by criminals. If you get one of these messages, contact your school’s offices via known, safe numbers instead of relying on the contact information provided by a would-be scammer.
They may even send out letters via the U.S. Postal Service, and if one of those arrives, Schiller says to do a little homework.
“You want to search the company’s name online,” she says. “See if there’s any scam alerts or any negative reviews from other students talking about them.”
The criminals may also try to lure in college students with promises of free money.
“You want to be wary of phone calls from companies guaranteeing that they can help reduce your loan payments or offer some type of a grant,” she says.
If you get one of these messages, report it to the BBB or the Iowa Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division.
