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Scammers are increasingly targeting Cal Poly students through the group chats and online spaces they use to coordinate classes, clubs and campus life, offering seemingly plausible deals that hide fraud. The surge matters now: busy students can be pressured into quick payments, and once money moves, recovery becomes difficult.
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Students say the fake accounts look authentic at a glance — profile pictures and bios that match the college-age crowd and casual messages that mimic how peers communicate. That surface credibility helps fraudsters slip into trusted channels and approach potential victims with offers for in-demand items like parking permits and concert tickets.
Annika Bullock, an officer with the campus Technical and Professional Communication Club, described the profiles as convincing enough to pass basic scrutiny. She worries freshman members, unfamiliar with moderated group norms, are particularly exposed.
How the schemes work
Campus scams follow a familiar pattern: an unsolicited offer appears in a chat, a sense of urgency is created, and a quick payment is requested through apps that make reversals difficult. Ashlyn Van Gorkom, who reviews digital fraud as an intern at a county cyber forensics lab, notes scammers exploit a narrow window for intervention — often only a day or two after a transfer.
“If that initial period closes, recovering money is almost impossible,” she said, warning that delays in reporting reduce investigators’ options.
A close call
History sophomore Jay Camerena described receiving a message in a dorm GroupMe promising a discounted parking pass. The price looked tempting, and the tone read like another student’s. When the account vanished from the group shortly afterward, Camerena realized the post had been a ruse.
That experience illustrates how quickly ordinary transactions can turn risky — and how scammers rely on realistic details and group trust to pressure people into acting without verification.
- Common red flags: mismatched or unusual email domains, sellers who pressure for immediate payment, and requests to use services such as Zelle or Venmo with no purchase protections.
- Fake listings for high-demand items (parking permits, tickets, textbooks) are a frequent lure.
- One-off accounts that join a chat, post an offer, then leave are often malicious.
Responding even lightly to a scam message can have consequences beyond that single exchange. Van Gorkom says playful replies signal to fraud networks that a phone number or email is active, and those contacts are then shared widely among scammers.
Scale and stakes
The threat extends beyond campus anecdotes. The FBI’s Internet Crime Report put losses to U.S. consumers in 2025 at more than $20 billion, a reminder that these incidents are part of a much larger, costly ecosystem of online fraud.
Cybersecurity training and basic vetting help, but students often lack experience with closed-group commerce and the checks that seasoned users apply. Bullock stresses a communal responsibility among club leaders to protect newcomers and keep shared spaces safer for everyone.
Experts warn that unless student platforms receive better oversight or users adopt stricter verification habits, fraudsters will continue to exploit those digital corridors. For now, vigilance — checking sender details, avoiding quick payment methods, and reporting suspicious posts promptly — remains the most practical defense.
