A Boston University student wired $150,000 to scammers posing as members of the government of China in one of four recent incidents of wire fraud the university warned about Thursday.
Many of the incidents, which bilked students out of $178,400, seem to be target at members of the Asian community, police said, urging students not to send money online to people they don’t know.
“We urge all members of our community to be vigilant against theft and fraud. Please take a moment to consider the possibility that a situation may be a scam or a fraud,” university police said in a message to the community with the subject line “Fraud Alert.”
The most recent incident shared by police was the most costly.
On Wednesday, a student was called by someone posing as a Chinese government official who accused the students of taking part in a crime. Police said the student wired $150,000 in installments after video conference calls appeared to show people wearing official uniforms and phone calls that seemed to be coming from the embassy. The student eventually contacted university police.
Since 2018, people have reported losing almost $245 million in gift card scams.
The day before, another student had wired $25,000 overseas after a similar scheme — someone posing as a Chinese government official said the only way the student could resolve an accusation of being involved in a crime was by wiring money abroad, police said.
In an incident reported…
