With school back in session, a new round of scams is surfacing that are targeting college students. Jim Hegarty, president of the Better Business Bureau in Omaha-Council Bluffs, says scammers are using social media to offer tempting deals on student loans.  “We’ve been warning for a few weeks about a scam that’s popped up on Facebook offering education grants,” Hegarty says. “We need our young people need to understand that they’re vulnerable and that they are being targeted just like seniors are and they need to be cautious.”

The first scam makes it sound very easy to get thousands of dollars in education grant money. “Kids are taking the bait on that, thinking they’re going to get access to some great college education money,” Hegarty says. “Of course, it involves processing fees, they’ve gotta’ get Green Dot money pack cards and send off some money in advance.” Any money they do send off in advance is usually lost.

Other scams offer students free trials on all sorts of programs which end up charging a monthly fee. The bureau is also warning students who may still be looking for a place to live near campus to watch where they click. Con artists are offering great apartments for rent and excellent prices, but the apartments either don’t exist or they’re not really owned by the advertiser. “It’s either individuals that are claiming that they’re looking for a roommate and they won’t be in the area for a few weeks,” he says, “or it’s scammers who have lifted legitimate properties that are on the market and they’ve just created their own ads on Craigs List.”

Hegarty warns that if a deal sounds like it is too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.

(Radio Iowa)