Students subject to swindles, scam
■An expert warns coliege
students to be cautious with
money and credit cards
By Andrew Adams
Oregon Daily Emerald
Far from home, flushed with
freedom and usually carrying a
credit card and a strong sense of
naivete, the average university
student is ripe for falling victim
to criminal scams, according to
Jan Margosian, a scam expert
with the state attorney general’s
office.
Margosian will give a speech
on the latest scams at 7:30 p.m.
today at Harris Hall, 125 E.
Eighth Ave. Margosian, who has
investigated scams for 18 years,
said high school and college stu
dents are the most targeted
groups for scam artists because
they usually lack experience,
have a large amount of dispos
able income and revel in a new
found sense of independence.
“Most of the time, [students]
are new to the marketplace and
they have a lot of money — stu
dents spend billions every year,”
she said. “And maybe they’re
away from their parents for the
first time and they won’t check
with their parents about some
thing.”
She said students should be on
the lookout for scams in employ
ment, used cars and entertain
ir ent. A common scheme is a
fraudulent company telling a stu
dent he has won a prize and will
receive it after buying some of
the company’s products.
r
“As far as the law goes, if you
win something, you don’t have to
pay anymore: You’ve won it,”
she said.
Companies offering extraordi
narily high weekly wages are an
other pitfall about which Mar
gosian warns students.
“They [say] you can just sit
back in your easy chair stuffing
envelopes and they’ll pay you all
this money and that’s just crazy,”
Margosian said.
She said the scam lies in the
fact that victims have to pay for
packets to start the work and
meet unrealistic objectives to
make the big money.
Fraudulent long-distance com
panies also pose a serious risk to
students by often placing charges
that don’t apply or services the
student didn’t ask the company
to add, Margosian said.
“What they do is hope you
don’t notice or are too lazy to do
anything about it,” she said.
“They make millions off that.”
Margosian said the best wav
for students to avoid being
conned is to always be on guard
and never take things for granted.
“When in doubt, check
it out,” she said. “Don’t be
pushed or coerced into signing or
agreeing to anything until you
know all about it.”
But this isn’t easy to do be
cause the anonymity of the Web
makes high-caliber Internet
scams hard to smell out, she said.
“We’ve gone from the two-bit
flim-flam guys to very sophisti
cated, large scams,” she said.
If students find themselves vic
tims of scams or feel a business is
not all that it seems, Margosian
said they should report it to the
attorney general’s scam hotline at
1-877-877-9392.
Most of the time,
[students] are new to the
marketplace and they
have a lot of money—
students spend billions
every year. And maybe
they’re away from their
parents for the first time
and they won’t check with
their parents about
something.
Jan Margosian * .
scam expert
Attorney General’s Office
Pamela Cournoyer, volunteer
coordinator for the Lane County
Sheriffs Office, said she organ
ized Margosian’s visit to get those
involved in the attorney general’s
scam program together.
‘‘[Margosian] is very popular.
She’s a good speaker and it’s a
good way to pull people togeth
er,” she said.
Cournoyer doesn’t think there
has been a run of scams in Lane
County, but she did think it was
a good idea to try and educate
people about the kinds of scams
that are out there.
“We’ll see if we can’t get a little
smarter,” she said.
Detective Steve Williams of the
Eugene Police Department’s fi
nancial crimes division said the
most common scam on college
students he comes across is fraud
ulent check cashing. He said stu
dents fall prey to individuals who
approach them with a long story
about how they can’t cash a
check, which has actually been
stolen and forged by the person.
The student, feeling sorry for the
person, cashes the check. When it
turns out the check is bad, the stu
dent gets that money docked from
their account. Williams has a sim
ple tip for students to avoid this
scam.
“Don’t cash checks from people
you don’t know,” he said. “If
someone has a check for $700, he
should be able to cash it legiti
mately.”
Another scam Williams said
students can fall prey to is credit
card fraud, which occurs when a
criminal uses a store copy of a
credit card record that includes
an individual’s name, credit card
number and expiration date.
After the dumpster-diving
criminal finds the information,
Williams said, he racks up
numerous purchases from the
Internet and then sells the goods
for a high profit.
He said that if anyone is caught
using a computer in a crime he
could face an E-Class felony and
up to five years in prison.
Calendar
Monday, Oct. 2
Exhibition: Featurin works
from the Martha’s Vineyard
Spring 2000 Architecture Studio
and the Northwest Print Council
Traveling Student Show. 10 a.m.
- 4 p.m. Reception 7-9 p.m.
LaVerne Krause Gallery,
Lawrence Hall. Free. For
information browse
http://laz.uoregon.edu/ or call
346-2057 or 346-3610.
Monday, Oct. 2
Reading: Portia Billings Foster
reads from her book “In Pursuit
of Justice Around the World and
in the Human Heart.” 7 p.m.
Mother Kali's Bookstore. Free.
Monday, Oct. 2
Politics: Campaign finance
reform ballot measure promotion
meeting. 7 p.m. Central
Presbyterian Church, 1475 Ferry
St., Eugene. Free.
Monday, Oct. 2
City Council: Work session,
where the council will complete
a review of the "Environment and
Sustainability" theme. McNutt
Room, City Hall. 5:30 p.m. Free.
Be cool...
Make a better world.
RECYCLE!
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Are you depressed or just
garden variety blue? _
007443
Thursday, October 5th is National Depression
Screening Day. The Counseling Center and Health
Education from the University Health Center will be
offering information about depression. Students can
fill out a depression questionaire, and discuss
concerns and resources with Counseling Center Staff.
National Depression Screening Day
Thursday, October 5th
11:00a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Health Center Area C
For more information, call 346-2843 or 346-3227
UNIVERSITY
9 HEALTH CENTER
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