Growing up, there was nothing worse than back to school commercials coming on when you still had a month of summer left. Back then I never imagined that my ‘nothing worse’ as an adult is scammers who use this time of year to exploit people. Same goes for disaster scams and holiday scams, but let’s talk about back to school scams!

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Parents and recent high-school grads, be aware of these tactics:

Free laptops and supplies
School is just around the corner, and you’ve only given a cursory look at the list of required and recommended supplies. Suddenly an add appears in your social media feed offering free laptops for students! Part of your brain instinctively tells you it is too good to be true. But the other part of your brain tells you this might be an opportunity to save $1,500, so why not apply, what do I have to lose? A couple weeks later, you have not received anything, your calls/emails to the company are ignored, you have a $49.99 shipping fee on your credit card plus other unrecognized charges, and your identity has been used to take out a loan you have no knowledge of.

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Free, no cost test prep
The first barrier to college admission is the SAT or ACT, and if you’re aiming for graduate school, it’s the GRE and GMAT. There are reputable organizations that help students prepare for these exams, but there are also plenty of scams offering similar services. With all the application fees and test fees, we become numb to paying fees to advance our lives, so when we see an advertisement for “free” test prep, it feels like a lifeline. You’ll end up providing personal information that leads to identity theft and paying a shipping free for a list of reputable test prep organizations. Stick to reputable organizations who will charge a fee without the lure of something for free.

Financial aid and scholarships
Private school and college are expensive. Understanding financial aid and scholarship applications are confusing. Any organization advertising any guarantees for a fee are a scam.

Registration and tuition scams
You were accepted, congratulations! You will be receiving information about registration and tuition payments but look at it carefully. Fraudsters use AI to create very sophisticated emails and text messages with the goal of stealing your personal information and money. Pay attention to the ‘from’ email address to ensure the domain (the part following the @ symbol) matches the school website. Be mindful of character differences like clemson.edu vs. clems0n.edu. Hover, don’t click, over hyperlinks to see where it takes you. If it’s not the school’s website, it is likely a scam. It’s best to confirm things with the school before taking the risk. AI makes these email feel real – I received one about a job opportunity at Microsoft that accurately referenced my background and used the identity of a real recruiter at Microsoft. You can see it here <LinkedIn Post>

Marketplace Scams selling textbooks and supplies
This category of scam goes well beyond back-to-school season and I have personally experienced it on Facebook Marketplace. There will be an in-depth post about marketplace scams but to focus on back-to-school shopping, these are my tips.

Be mindful of deals that are too good to be true.

Check the seller profile. If it’s new, lacking a photo/information, they don’t have many friends, or very few posts then it’s most likely a scammer. If the seller says they need to “verify that you are a real person” and provides a link or asks for a code you just received via text, STOP. A link is an attempt to infect your computer with malware or takes you to a face website to steal personal information. If you share a code, they are likely trying to log into one of your accounts and the code is meant to authenticate you so if you share it, they have access. This is very common in bank account takeover these days.

Keep the conversation on the platform. Scammers will ask for your phone number or ask to chat on WhatsApp. If you go off platform, you are on your own and will have no support from Facebook, so don’t do it.

For more information, visit the FTC at: ftc.gov/onlineshopping