Students aren’t the only ones gearing up for back-to-school season. Security experts warn that criminals are also circling the date on their calendar and preying on students with a host of education-related scams.
Although young people are often tech savvy, they may also let their digital guard down and are as likely to fall for certain scams as senior citizens, according to fraud detection specialists with JPMorgan Chase.
The Federal Communications Commission recently issued an alert to students and parents, urging them to show caution when asked to turn over personal information. Here are some of the most common back-to-school scams to look out for.
Textbook shopping scams
School supplies, including textbooks and tech tools like laptops, are costly, so it’s natural to look for deals and discounts on classroom essentials. But when searching for cheaper alternatives online, beware of fake stores that purport to sell discounted school supplies and textbooks.
Be alert to deals that appear too good to be true, and check the store’s web address to make sure it’s authentic. Scammers often try to mimic schools’ online stores by copying and pasting their logos and other imagery to make the shops appear genuine. These sellers sometimes misrepresent what they’re selling, or take your money without sending you anything at all.
“It’s eye watering how expensive textbooks are,” Darius Kingsley, head of consumer business practices at JPMorgan Chase, told CBS MoneyWatch. “You’ll find a lot of websites online that say they have textbooks, but the reality is a lot of them are fake, and you don’t know what you’ll get. It could say ‘2021 edition’ but in reality it’s ancient.”
When a seller on a marketplace or online store asks for payment through a cash transfer app like Venmo, for example, that’s often a tip-off that they’re trying to scam you, according to Kingsley.
“Everyone loves a deal and textbook prices are expensive, so it’s a scam that’s really taken off,” he said.
Scholarship scams
Not every scholarship or student loan offer you may receive is genuine. Cybercriminals are known to imitate banks, government agencies and other lenders to target students in order to steal their personal and financial information.
“A lot of [genuine] student loans these days are funded by non-bank companies whose names you don’t recognize,” Kingsley said. “There are a lot of fake loan companies,”
The upshot: Think twice before sharing sensitive data with unknown entities. Kingsley highlighted how unaware young people can be about the financial value of their personal information, oncluding their names, photos, and Social Security numbers, and how vulnerable they are if it ends up in the hands of bad actors.
“This generation is so used to their real names and other information being out there on TikTok that they’ve become numb to it,” he told CBS MoneyWatch. “But if someone can get your full identity, then it’s available on the dark web and they can use it to apply for a credit card.”
While students typically may not have much in the way of funds to drain, their digital identities are still valuable. “They are young people who will be alive for a long time, so you can copy their complete identity,” Kingsley said.
This can hamstring young graduates down the line when they apply for a job or to rent an apartment only to discover blots on their credit. “It can take a while to clean up right when you’re trying to launch career and new future,” he added.
The FCC strongly advises against sharing personally identifiable information over the phone. This includes bank account and routing numbers as well as credit and debit card numbers.
Tech support scams
Also beware tech support scams, in which fraudsters mimic a school computer technician. They’ll commonly say they need to install educational software and ask students to click on a pop-up window to give them access to their personal device. Kingsley advises students never to grant anyone remote access to their computers and never to share their login credentials.
Fake job offers
Although these scams aren’t aimed only at students, people just launching their careers, or simply in need of cash, could be particularly susceptible to such schemes. Incidents of job scams soared 118% in 2023 compared with a year earlier, according to a recent report from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).
In these attacks, criminals pose as recruiters and reach out directly to targets, often over text message. Scammers will ask for information that isn’t typically required in a job application, like your bank account number.
If you didn’t initiate contact with someone claiming to be a recruiter or hiring manager, don’t engage without first doing some homework about the purported job opportunity. Research the company, including visiting their website to see if there any matching job openings.
It’s also wise to verify the name of the company with a third-party accreditation site or even Yelp, ITRC CEO Eva Velasquez said.
“When you get a job offer saying they’ll pay you $1,200 a day to stuff envelopes, that’s not realistic. No company is going to do that,” she said. “That’s not a task that requires that level of compensation, but it does capitalize on our emotions.”