Tell the College Student in Your Life to Look Out for This Scam

College graduates wearing caps with tassels, seen from behind. — (Image credit: Thinkstock)

Scams target people of all ages, from older adults to teenagers, especially as more and more of our lives play out online. In fact, people aged 18 to 59 were 34% more likely to report losing money to fraud than those over 60 in 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Now, the FTC has put out a warning specifically to college students to look out for a particular scam targeting that group of people. In particular, fraudsters are using the lure of a job offer, like a virtual side hustle or summer gig, to get money from students.

The way the scams usually work, the FTC says, is through either a fake job ad for personal assistants on job sites or social media or through an email doctored to look like it came from someone the student knows, like one of their professors or college offices.

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If a student bites, the scammers will mail them a check to deposit. They'll then ask for the student to send some of the check money to another account, the FTC says. What will end up happening is that the check will eventually bounce, while the student has already sent money to the scammer.

How to catch a fake job scam

The obvious thing to look out for to avoid this scam, the FTC says is any job that mails the student a check before they start working. If that happens, "that's your cue to stop."

But there are also ways to look out for this scam before getting to that point. If a student is looking at a job posting or unusual email about a job, they should search the internet for the name of that company (or the person) and see if people have talked about it being a scam.

If an email looks like it came from a professor or college office, the student should reach out to that person directly. Don't reply to the email — call, email an address they know for them, or stop by their office if still on campus. Additionally, let college students know if they're contacted about a job, they should ask for the job duties, pay and hours in writing. Scammers may refuse to send that information.

As a final note of advice, the FTC says college students should "talk to someone you trust" to get their opinion on a job opportunity. That's your cue to use your own experience and wisdom to help them out — and if they complain, remind them that you may be helping them avoid needlessly losing money.

Alexandra Svokos is the digital managing editor of Kiplinger. She holds an MBA from NYU Stern in finance and management and a BA in economics and creative writing from Columbia University. Alexandra has over a decade of experience in journalism and previously served as the senior editor of digital for ABC News, where she directed daily news coverage across topics through major events of the early 2020s for the network's website, including stock market trends, the remote and return-to-work revolutions, and the national economy. Before that, she pioneered politics and election coverage for Elite Daily and went on to serve as the senior news editor for that group.

Alexandra was recognized with an "Up & Comer" award at the 2018 Folio: Top Women in Media awards, and she was asked twice by the Nieman Journalism Lab to contribute to their annual journalism predictions feature. She has also been asked to speak on panels and give presentations on the future of media and on business and media, including by the Center for Communication and Twipe.