SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) – In San Jose, the East Side Union High School District says there is a scam targeting students and asking for their bank account information. One family almost handed over their financial information before finding out it was a scam.
The student who was nearly victimized says he’s graduating high school this school year and has been saving up money. He thought an email he received on his phone would have helped him with that process.
It offered him remote work with a weekly pay of $400. But it also asked for his parents’ credit card info, which was when his mom had to step in.
“He applied for it and he asked if I have debit or credit card. It’s asking me for my number, I was like ‘Woah,’” said Laticia Cantu.
Cantu says her son Guy already has work experience, so she says she wasn’t concerned about him applying for a job – until the application asked for their financial information.
The job offer was a blast chain email sent to hundreds of emails with an East Side Union High School District address.
She said the dead giveaway that it was phishing was many of the email addresses listed as recipients were fake or repetitive – and that the message was full of spelling errors.
“These kids are getting ready to go to college and they are being taken advantage of,” Cantu said.
The school district told KRON4 it heard of similar phishing emails going out to other districts and has been working proactively with Google to block incoming phishing emails.
East Side Union says it doesn’t know how many students are being targeted or if any students actually had their bank account info compromised. The school district said the priority now is informing the public about this issue, saying in a statement:
“If any student or parent receives a suspicious email they’re worried about, contact the district by phone or on the school’s website for more information.”
For Guy, it’s a valuable lesson as he gets ready to graduate high school.
“How easy I could have been tricked, and if I wasn’t asking questions I could have gotten my stuff bankrupt,” he said.
Cantu plans to report this email and the address to San Jose police. KRON4 reached out to the San Jose Police Department to ask if they’ve heard similar reports but did not hear back.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
