Over £2.9m of student maintenance loans could have gone to scammers had it not been for the intervention of the Student Loans Company (SLC), according to the Government body.
The scam, which gets its name from a combination of SMS and phishing, is where criminals target victims with text messages that ask for verification of bank details or a request to confirm some personal information.
Criminals then use the details provided to divert a payment to their own account.
September is a particularly prominent time for fraudsters as they look to con students out of the various sizeable payments going into their accounts, including maintenance loans and grants.
‘Think before you click’
Alan Balanowski, risk director at SLC, said: “Our message to students is, quite simply, think before you click.”
“Starting or returning to university is an exciting time, but it’s also busy, with students getting organised and set up for the academic year, which includes dealing with information from different organisations, including ourselves”, Balanowski added.
The SLC also reassured those heading to university that there are preventive methods in place to combat scammers, “but the most impactful tool” is students being aware of the problem and staying vigilant.
Balanowski added: “If a student receives a suspicious message, they should delete it and report it immediately, but if a scammer does succeed in obtaining personal details, then we must collectively act quickly to spot and block the action.”
Students are, of course, just one of many demographics that fraudsters are targeting this year. Indeed, the number of fraud and scam complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) reached record levels over the first quarter of this financial year.
Between 1 April and 30 June 2024, some 8,734 complaints were made to the dispute resolution service, an increase of more than 2,000 from the year before.
To assist students, the Government has released a guide on how to avoid being a victim of a smishing scam before the 2024/25 academic year.
Top five tips to dodge a smishing scam
1. Verify the communication. If a customer receives a communication from Student Finance England (SFE) that they are unsure of, they should log into their online account to verify if it’s genuine. Neither SLC nor SFE provide any services through WhatsApp and will never initiate contact with a student through social media channels, including Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok, to discuss their application or student finance entitlement.
2. Bad grammar? Check the quality of the communication – misspellings, poor punctuation and bad grammar are often signs of phishing.
3. Who is it addressed to? Scam emails and text messages are often sent in bulk at the same time and are unlikely to contain both a first and last name. These commonly start: ‘Dear Student’.
4. Contact Student Finance. SFE sends a text message to students in England if a change has been made to their bank details. If you haven’t changed your bank details and have received a message, contact it immediately.
5. Don’t dive in. If an email or text message contains a link, hover over it to check that it goes where it’s supposed to. If in any doubt, don’t risk it – always go directly to the source rather than clicking on a potentially dangerous link.
