BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — As college students head back to campus, scammers could be looking to take advantage, targeting students and recent graduates with fake jobs and loan forgiveness offers.
According to the FBI's Internet Crime Report, people ages 18 to 29 lost more than $730 million to scams in 2025. The Better Business Bureau says it is seeing more scams singling out college students and recent graduates.
"And in some of the college situations we're seeing, it looks like the scammers are posing as the school, posing as a possible teacher at the school to make it seem more legitimate for the student," said Joe Ducey with the BBB.
That can include scammers reaching out about student loan forgiveness or repayment plans. Ducey says these criminals leverage any confusion students may have about their loans and promise to erase their debt in exchange for an up-front fee or personal information.
"Nobody is going to promise they're going to take your loan away for a little bit of money," Ducey said.
Ducey says students should be careful with unsolicited offers and should go directly through their official FAFSA or government accounts for information about their loans.
Students and graduates looking for work are also being targeted. Ducey says scammers may promise a high-paying remote job with little work, and sometimes they will even hire someone without ever meeting them. The victim may then be asked to send money to set up their home office.
"Either they don't get any money, and their own money is gone, or they get a fake check that makes it look like they've been paid for, but they haven't. So by the time they find out the check is bad, they've already sent their good money away," Ducey said.
Ducey says being hired entirely over text, being promised a lot of money for minimal work, or being asked to pay money up front are all red flags.
"And if you're asked to pay money for anything, don't do it. You're the employee, you should get paid. You don't have to pay for the job," Ducey said.
When it comes to any scam, Ducey says taking a moment to step back and verify whether an offer is legitimate can help people avoid losing money and personal information.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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