College students face the highest risk of being scammed

With students returning to college for their fall semester, many are looking for scholarships or grants to help pay the bill, but the Better Business Bureau is warning students to be on the lookout for scams.

A BBB Scam Tracker report from July highlighted the growing issue for college students, as one shared an experience in which a website claimed to be a “database of grants and scholarships for graduating high school seniors.”

“The applications weren’t easily accessible, and when I tried to cancel the membership because of it, I thought it had gone through, but I have been charged twice more since then without any sort of email or letter mail,” the student shared, noting that they lost $100 from the scam.

The BBB shared in a blog post over the summer that students should be cautious when giving their information for anything, not just scholarships or grants.

The BBB says that scams can involve fake credit card offers, apartments, online shopping, and more.

The bureau is encouraging students to check the credibility of businesses through its business checker tool to ensure they aren’t giving their information to potentially dangerous people.

Cinthya Lavin, the vice president of communications at the BBB, recently shared with The National Desk that college-age students are often very susceptible to scams.

“It’s really been on the rise in the last few years. College students get targeted because they know they’re a vulnerable group,” Lavin said. “They’re really getting their footing out in the door. So it is important for those that are embarking on to the venture of college to make sure that they are very aware of who they talk to online and about sharing their personal information.”

Lavin notes that often, the most common scams they see are with jobs, especially “secret shopping” or online surveys.

“They have to be very careful because a lot of these companies really don’t exist, and they’re just trying to get your personal and financial information. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is,” Lavin said.

Lavin says that an important rule for students is that if an application has a fee, be sure to double-check their credibility.

“Anything that asks you for a fee to process an application is an illegitimate scholarship or grant. All these things are free of charge through nonprofits. So be very careful where you apply and enter that financial information,” Lavin says.