A pair of reported scam attempts has Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials cautioning college students looking for financial aid deals, officials said Thursday.
“I’ve gotten a couple of phone calls from college students, one of them was at COC and another at CSUN,” said Deputy Josh Dubin of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. “This type of scam has been going on in several different variations, whether it be, “I need somebody to cash this check for me because I don’t have a bank account…”
Essentially the fraud involves the perpetrator asking the victim to cash a check that they know doesn’t have sufficient funds, for one reason or another — the latest version seems to involves false promises of a financial aid disbursement, Dubin said.
The perpetrator then asks for a return of some portion of the check’s funds before the bank is able to clear the check and discover the fraud.
“I just want to make sure that people know if it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” Dubin said. “We want to make sure people have a top of mind aware about these scams.”