Police investigate phone scam targeting Winthrop students

Winthrop University students are being targeted by a phone scam looking to swindle students or their parents out of money, according to school officials.

The university’s police department is investigating at least five complaints of suspicious calls believed to be part of a phone scam. The Rock Hill Police Department and the Columbia office of the Joint Terrorism Task Force are also investigating.

Winthrop’s police chief, Frank Zebedis, said the calls appear on caller ID as coming from the Rock Hill Police Department. The caller then identifies himself as a Winthrop employee and informs the student that they have an outstanding balance on their campus account.

The callers – some of whom have a foreign accent – tell the students that, if they do not pay, their classes will be canceled, their transcripts will be held, and their degrees will be voided, Zebedis said. The students or their parents are also told they are being investigated for a variety of offenses, such as fraud.

The callers then say that students can pay fines over the phone to “clear the matter up,” school officials say.

Students and parents should not give out personal information over the phone or agree to make payments by phone, Zebedis said. Questions about outstanding student balances should be made to Winthrop’s cashier’s office or the office of records and registration.

Winthrop officials are encouraging students and parents to contact the police department if they receive a suspicious call about an outstanding balance.

Similar scam tactics happened last year at the University of South Carolina, USC Aiken and other schools in the Southeast, officials said. Most of those calls “spoofed” local police department numbers in the local area to make it appear on caller ID that the spam call was from authorities, Winthrop officials said.

The spam callers seem to be obtaining student phone numbers from the university’s online directory, Zebedis said. He added that no other sensitive information is known to be compromised.

Winthrop maintains a public student and employee directory on its website with telephone numbers included. In some cases, students list their parents’ home telephone number or their personal cellphone number.

School officials say students can choose to opt-out of being listed from the online directory.

To avoid being scammed, Winthrop police suggest:

This story was originally published January 8, 2015 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Police investigate phone scam targeting Winthrop students."