Warning as students targeted by scam

The University of Otago is warning students looking for flatmates next year about a foreign scam that has already relieved two unsuspecting people of several hundred dollars.

It is understood that Otago University students previously have not been victims of such stings but they are being targeted this year.

The university has sent an email to all Otago students warning them about the scams, which involve doing accommodation deals on the internet.

Otago University accommodation office manager Adele Evans said two students, who live near the campus, recently received an email from a confidence trickster responding to their online advertisement for a flatmate.

The offender then sent a cheque from a European country with the required bond and rent money, but soon complained too much had been sent and requested the excess funds be transferred into a bank account.

In the meantime, the cheque had not cleared and was eventually found to be false, but only after the Otago students had deposited the money, amounting to several hundred dollars, Mrs Evans said.

The two students were worried and had reported the fraud to the university's accommodation services this week, she said.

This was a timely reminder to students to watch out for what the Ministry of Consumer Affairs described as "flatmate scams", she said.

She advised students not to set up accommodation deals via email and to wait until they had met people face-to-face first.

Students should also ensure any cheques were payable through a New Zealand account.

Mrs Evans knew of one other student flat and a landlord also targeted by the same scam about three weeks ago, with the students receiving a bogus cheque from Britain.

In those two cases the landlord and students became suspicious and did not transfer the requested amount.

The university's internet site already had more than a hundred flat vacancies for next year on its online advertising service.

There was little to prevent confidence tricksters from using the advertisements to make contact with unsuspecting students.

Foreign cheques took much longer to clear and students were often not aware of that, she said.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz