Slew of scams target unsuspecting students
Students thinking they were accepting a job quickly found they were the targets of fraudulent scams, according to Sgt. Travis Dunn, of the USU Police Department. The jobs and apartment listings in the Taggart Student Center are the means through which these scams were operationalized.
Dunn said the police department has received calls about fraudulent activity on campus for the past few weeks. He said these scams include a roommate want ad, a man selling magazines on campus and a job posting requesting help with a disabled child.
“Apparently one of our students here on campus put a want ad for a roommate,” Dunn said. “He’s then been getting some replies by email saying that they would love to be his roommate, and then they’re sending him checks in large amounts.”
The person who posted the ad is asking students to send money for the apartment deposit and then asking them to send the rest of the rent through a money transfer agent, Dunn said. The money would then be sent to the person who posted the ad, who claims to be outside the country.
Another scam on campus involves a man selling magazines. Dunn said the man tells students he is from Oregon State University, and he is being graded on his communication skills. He said the man makes people feel like they are getting the magazine for free before revealing they have to pay for it, but then he said they will get their money back by calling a certain phone number after 5 p.m.
“But these kids are paying with cash. So the money’s gone,” Dunn said.
The man is walking students to the ATM, Dunn said. The man takes the cash and gives the victim a receipt and a fake phone number to call. Dunn said hundreds of dollars have been stolen this way.
Dunn said students don’t often report the crime, because they feel embarrassed and taken advantage of. He said this facilitates the continuance of these scams.
Officer Andy Barnes of USUPD said another job board posting implies that a woman is looking for someone to help her with her handicapped child when she moves to Logan.
“This lady’s supposedly moving to Logan. She needs somebody here to help out with the child,” Barnes said. “What she wants them to do is to purchase a wheelchair for this child before she even gets in the valley.”
Elementary education and deaf education major Kaitlynn Mraz said she applied to a job posted by someone claiming to be a Judy Smith. She said she corresponded with her via email.
“She told me that she was going to send me a check for $2,799, and I was to keep $300 of it for my first paycheck and wire the rest of it on to Missouri to an account manager.”
Mraz said the check she received was for $2,750, and she took it to Western Union last Saturday and split the money into three checks. She said she didn’t know how to send the checks through Western Union and didn’t send them out.
Mraz said she started to feel suspicious when she talked to her friends.
“I told my friends about it and they started asking me ‘Why is she having you transfer the money?'” she said.
She said she then took the checks to the police when her mom found a story about the same scam online.
She said she trusted the woman because she said she was going to meet her in a local, public place, and the job was on the USU job board.
“The job was found on USU’s website,” Mraz said, “I didn’t find it on Craigslist or KSL, so that was a little bit upsetting.”
Dunn said another student also fell for the scam and actually cashed the checks. Now, Dunn said, that student is liable for the money and has to repay the bank. Dunn said he couldn’t disclose a dollar amount, but similar scams would leave victims responsible for paying more than $2,000.
Human resources specialist for Student Employment Paula Johnson said people can give job posts online, through the student employment website. She said they look for weird email addresses, and they call phone numbers that look fake, but some still get through.
Johnson said they posted a disclaimer online and on the off-campus job board, warning students about the service.
“USU facilitates job postings are a public service to off-campus employers and to USU students. USU does not screen or endorse the off-campus employers listed here. Please exercise due caution before accepting any job and report any suspicious or unethical activity to our office and to the USU Police Department,” the warning states.
Sgt. Jessica Elder of USUPD said banks won’t make people who have lost credit cards pay for lost funds, but will hold people liable for cashing fraudulent checks.
“You’re responsible for that check from the bank, and they’re going to hold you responsible,” Elder said. “If you don’t have the money to pay them back, and you send it elsewhere, then you’re still going to have to get it.”
Dunn said they have had similar scams online but these are different.
“This one’s weird, because this one’s an actual physical posting,” Dunn said.
Dunn said it is still hard to find these people, because they use multiple aliases and P.O. boxes with false names.
Dunn said the printed name and the signature on the fraudulent checks don’t match. He said the names of the people sending and receiving the checks are also different. None of the names match up, he said.
Dunn said students can protect themselves by being cautious.
“If it seems like it’s too good to be true, it’s probably a scam,” Dunn said. “If you receive money without doing anything — for working for it — it’s probably a scam.”
Elder said students should be wary of anyone selling anything. In the case of the magazine scam, people aren’t allowed to sell on campus without first going through the proper university channels.
– chris.w.lee@aggiemail.usu.edu