WARNING: Scammers Are Targeting South Dakota College Students

Scammers are always looking for their next opportunity, and right now they're targeting college students.

With everything that's happened in the past few years, it's understandable that we may have our guard down a little bit when it comes to our own (and our kids) online protection. Scammers know this too. In fact, this is what they're expecting. For the average person, who may be sending their kid to college in these uncertain times, to be more vulnerable than usual.

College kids themselves have a lot to worry about, these days more than ever. According to the BBB, college students are the most at-risk age group for online scammers.

Freshmen, freshly exposed to managing their own finances, are particularly vulnerable because they are online looking for ways to save. According to BBB’s most recent Scam Tracker Risk Report, 41.6% of students reported a loss when exposed to a scam as compared to 28.3% of non-students.

That's why this is the perfect time for college kids to educate themselves on the potential threats out there from scammers. Here's how they can protect themselves.

• Before you click on a link, check it out. Look up the seller's information independently before you click on anything, or give away your information.
• Look things over closely. Bad grammar and spelling can be an immediate 'red flag'. Make sure that the email is actually from your school and it's not from a knock off-site. A good way to identify this is to hover your cursor over the link, then look at the bottom of your browser to see where it wants to send you.