The school year for college has just begun and scammers are taking advantage of this to target college students and their parents with phone calls in which the scammers pose as the school’s financial aid office or bursar’s office.  They tell the student or parent of the student that their financial aid package has fallen through and that the student will not be allowed to attend classes unless they pay the full amount of the semester’s tuition immediately.  Often the scammers demand payment by cryptocurrencies or gift cards which is always a red flag that it is a scam.

Through a simple technique called “spoofing” the scammers can manipulate your Caller ID so that the call appears to come from the college or university when the truth is that it is coming from a scammer.

TIPS

Trust me, you can’t trust anyone.  Whenever you get an email, text message or, such as in the case of this scam, a phone call asking for a payment, you should not make the payment unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication was legitimate.  In this case, most colleges and universities use secure student portals to post bills and enable payments.  You can confirm if anything is owed by going to the portal.  Alternatively, you can call the financial aid office or billing office for the college or university directly at a phone number that you know is legitimate to see what the truth is.

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