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Colleges in Canton, Potsdam to warn students of ‘grandparents scam’ before they leave for winter break

Posted 11/21/14

At least three of the Canton-Potsdam area’s colleges will be warning students about a continuing scam that fleeces grandparents with a phone call telling them a loved one needs money fast. Clarkson …

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Colleges in Canton, Potsdam to warn students of ‘grandparents scam’ before they leave for winter break

Posted

At least three of the Canton-Potsdam area’s colleges will be warning students about a continuing scam that fleeces grandparents with a phone call telling them a loved one needs money fast.

Clarkson University, SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Canton have taken steps to be sure students are aware that family members could be taken advantage of if they don’t know where the students are.

Clarkson sent out a campus-wide message Oct. 30:

“Please be advised of a current phone scam where an unknown caller phones grandparents or family members, and then impersonates a grandson, son, etc., stating they have been arrested and are in desperate need of bail money, etc. The caller has some limited personal information that can make the call appear to be legitimate. The caller then instructs on how to send the necessary money and that they do not want their parents or other family members to be told.

“Experts advise asking the caller questions only the family or student would know the answer to, and contacting the immediate family or law enforcement immediately,” the Clarkson warning said.

At the urging of state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, colleges in New York are telling students how perpetrators impersonate relatives in need and then dupe unsuspecting seniors into sending them money.

SUNY Potsdam spokeswoman Alex Jacobs said while they have not yet received the warning from Schneiderman, “SUNY Potsdam will absolutely share this important information with students to bring home to their families. Now that we have the information, we are planning to share this with students not only through the brochures, but also via email and social media.”

SUNY Canton spokesman Ger Kie said, “We will be relaying the attorney general’s warnings about the ‘Grandparent Scam’ to our students. We’re encouraging them to be especially aware of the potential for fraud during the holiday season.”

Schneiderman’s advice:

• Be suspicious of anyone who calls unexpectedly asking you to wire money.

• Verify any supposed emergency, by calling friends and family, before wiring money.

• Develop a secret code or "password" with family members that can be used to verify a true emergency.

• Limit personal information, such as vacation plans, shared on social media sites.

The Attorney General is asking the schools to distribute brochures to as many students as possible and is offering to have his statewide elder abuse coordinator speak directly to students about how they can best protect their families.

The Federal Trade Commission recorded more than 40,000 incidents of grandparent scams from 2010 to 2013 and the scam is widely considered to be underreported.