Students are not known for their wealth, but sadly many scammers do target students thinking they can be easy pickings.

Here are the most common scams faced by new students.

New Student’s friend

This scam uses social engineering techniques to identify potential victims and contact them through social media at University. Once in contact, the scammer gains their victims’ trust. However it is a scam – befriending people, then stealing money as well as gaining bank account and credit card details which can be sold to other scammers or they can just empty your bank account, max out your credit card and take out loans in your name.

You should review the security and visibility settings on your social media accounts to make sure that only the people you want to share information with can see your profile, contact details and postings.

The Student Loan Scam

The most common form of this is through emails at the start of the financial year. The messages claim to be from the Student Loan Company asking for confirmation of some details. You have to provide your details to get the money so you give the personal information and then the scammers can try to access your real student loan and other accounts you may have.

Part-Time Jobs

Many students take part-time jobs while studying, to reduce the need for loans etc. Scammers offer irresistible part-time jobs that pay well above the norm. The ads may be via email, social media, newsletters or other means..

These scam jobs may not exist or may be illegal e.g. being paid for receiving packages and re-posting them on to new destinations (drugs or other contraband) or accepting payments and forwarding them (money laundering).

Stay safe by only trusting people in the real world or online when you are sure they are who they claim to be and what they want is legal and correct.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.