The Federal Bureau of Investigations wants everyone to be vigilant regarding fraud and theft. And they issue the same warning to college and university job hunters. According to students, a scam that is specifically targeting college or university graduates has been reported.
They describe the scam to be fake advertisements and can be difficult to spot. But the agency says that there are red flags that anyone can look out for.
The FBI says that if college students are not careful, instead of getting a job, they may get swindled, as reported by ABC Action News. These scams look like legitimate advertisements and they are sent to the students' official university email and are even posted on the school's job boards.
Scammers are able to find victims from these places and many more because students would think of heading there first. The platform feels legitimate and official. Plus, going to these places would seem like it is a lot safer. And each time a red flag is found, the scams are getting harder to spot.
Paul Vitchock, the supervisory special agent from the FBI, says that these scammers are creating ads that look believable.
How would students spot the red flag? The red flag comes after a user makes contact with the would-be employer. It starts with the "employer" writing a check and telling the student to keep a portion of the money as the salary and will instruct victims to wire the remaining amount to a client. Sounds alright until the check bounces, as reported by Wand TV.
In 2016, the University of Tampa was able to stop 30 scam advertisements on the official job board. But after every take-down, a new one pops up somewhere and these are pretty hard to spot because the scammers are getting creative.
The FBI warns that if it feels wrong, it may be wrong. Watch the TV News Clip below for the exclusive on this issue:
