College Students Beware - IT Security News

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by Robin Pugh
President, DarkTower

Fraudsters are always quick to leverage a crisis for the purposes of cybercrime, and COVID19 has created a new target demographic of 14 million college students. As over 1,100 colleges and universities across the United States have closed their doors, forcing students to leave their college housing, many have been actively pursuing a sub-lease of their off-campus housing to try to alleviate the financial burden of a semester now forced to go virtual.

Anatomy of a Rental Fraud

Most campuses have official or unofficial online bulletin boards where students can look for roommates, apartments, sub-lessors, etc., and these places are target-rich environments for fraudsters. Take the case of my friend whose son, like millions of others, is now living at home, finishing out his semester online. There’s no refund for his fees, tuition, or meal plan, and to continue to pay for his off-campus housing is yet another financial burden. So, like millions of others, he and his parents have been looking for someone to sub-lease his apartment. When they finally got a bite, it was from someone in a Facebook Group where he had posted his apartment for rent. The person who contacted him was “Anthony S Felix” who did so on behalf of his ‘friend’ Liang—a nice, quiet, single woman with no kids and no pets – who was very interested in his place. We’re going to call my friend’s son “Austin.”

Figure 1: hxxps://www.facebook[.]com/groups/NCSUOffCampusHousing/

Exactly as “Anthony” promised, his friend Liang texted Austin with her interest in sub-leasing his apartment.

Figure 2: Initial contact from Anthony introducing “Liang”

Liang built rapport and trust, sharing details of her job, the timeline of her move, and both her phone number and email address. Since she is a traveling nurse, she wouldn’t be able to come see the apartment in person, which worked well, since the property managers weren’t allowing in-person showings anyway. It seemed like a match made in heaven!

Figure 3: First communication from Liang

Liang’s move was being funded by her employer; so, she told Austin she was going to get them to approve her relocation costs and get back to him. And she did – she committed to sub-leasing the apartment and promised to send her first partial-month’s rent right away.

Very soon, Liang texted Austin with the tracking number for the rent check, but there was just one little problem. The check was actually for quite a bit more than just her first partial-month’s rent of $386. Her employer had mistakenly issued the check for all of her relocation costs, but she trusted Austin completely; so, she just asked that he keep the rent payment, and transfer the rest to her via Zelle. As a matter of fact, she was so flexible that she didn’t even mind if he broke it into two payments of $1,000 each.

Figure 4: Communication with Liang, continued

Figure 5: Liang constructs the fraud

As Liang promised, the check arrived via USPS, and Austin’s parents deposited it into their Bank of America Wealth Management account. Because they are long-time customers of Bank of America, the funds were available quickly, giving Austin’s parents confidence because a) it was a Cashier’s check, and b) since the funds were available, the check must have cleared. They kept their end of the bargain, retaining $386 for the partial month’s rent and sending $2,249 via Zelle to the recipient Liang had directed.

A few days later, the bank notified Austin’s parents that the check had NOT, in fact, cleared, and they were now left with no renter, no first month’s rent, and a bank account balance $2,249 less than it should have been. Due to the fact that Zelle transfers happen within minutes, there was no recourse to retrieve the funds that were now in the scammers hands.

Figure 6: Cashier’s Check from Liang

Will the Real Anthony S. Felix Please Stand Up?

A review of Anthony’s Facebook profile shows no public posts since 2017; however, his Facebook URL reveals the name “Osunday Adekunle,” and a Facebook search reveals many profiles under the name Sunday Adekunle. The “O” could possibly refer to the title “Oba” which, in West Africa, means “Ruler.” Additionally, there are a few “friendversary” Facebook videos showing Adekunle and his Nigerian friends. Regardless, his Facebook profile says that he is an employee at Oklahoma State University, living in Seattle, Washington. That’s quite a commute! His profile photo is a quote attributed to Bill Gates about his wish to become involved in Network Marketing.