SALT LAKE CITY — Back-to-school season usually means new pencils, backpacks, and calculators. It also means scammers are calculating how to best swindle you out of your back-to-school bucks.
College students are targets of the latest scams, but University of Utah student Katie Mansfield has found a way to avoid that fate.
“There have been a few times, especially when I was younger, that they seemed more convincing," Mansfield said. "As I got more and more of them, I know how to pick them out."
The types of scams range in complexity, with one being one of the most prevalent:
“Job scams; it could be fake or fraudulent job listings that they say are flexible, high-paying, and come via a text or email, unsolicited,” explained Mallory Santa Cruz, a community manager for Chase Bank.
Santa Cruz has heard just about everything from clients, including schemes looking to farm personal information that can be used for many purposes. Then there’s the promise of scholarships, posing as a pay-to-play model asking for money up front while gathering confidential or identifying information.
But another money-maker for these scammers: student housing. They rely on a younger population that may not be familiar with traditional housing agreements, leases, or rental agreements.
What can you do to keep your family safe from online predators?
Scammers ask for a deposit upfront, creating a sense of urgency, saying there’s a lot of demand, while being reluctant to show the property.
Santa Cruz says oftentimes they may be double-booking; gathering deposits from multiple students and not refunding anyone.
“Make sure that they’re seeing the property. Make sure that they’re connecting directly with the landlord of the property or the property manager and that they’re being very cautious about paying and offering that payment upfront,” said Santa Cruz.
In any event, Santa Cruz shared the best way to avoid many of the fraudsters:
“Check URLs, look at the website. Sometimes you’ll see typos, or you’ll see mismatches in logos, content, data," says Santa Cruz. "Just be aware and be on guard against any type of unsolicited outreach, unsolicited texts, unsolicited emails.”
And before you send your loved one off to begin their bright future, Santa Cruz advised parents and family members to talk to their students about prevention efforts and how to keep information safeguarded.
