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A STUDENT lost more than $3,000 after they received an email from who they thought was a university professor.
Clayton Justice, a student at Case Western University, in Cleveland, Ohio, said he was offered $500 for a work project but instead lost thousands.
The biomedical engineering major received an email from a professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Clayton, 19, said the email appeared to be from an economics professor called Dr. Marco Airaudo who offered him $500 to research pharmaceuticals, according to ABC affiliate WPVI-TV.
“500 bucks for about what two, three hours of work, I thought it was a really good deal for me,” Clayton said.
He added that he and his mom, Kimberly Justice, had done some research and thought the job was legitimate.
“Even when I looked into it I was like legitimate professor, that’s his area of study it makes sense that they would do it,” Kimberly said.
The scam started when Clayton was sent two checks totaling $3,600 and was told to cash them.
Clayton said he was then instructed to Venmo more than $3,000 to another student in the program for work, and he sent the money in two lots.
“I thought that was odd,” he said.
“The next day after I sent the 1,250 payment I looked at my bank statement and I was in the negative for some reason,” he added.
Kimberly, a civil attorney from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, around 10 miles outside of Philadelphia, contacted the professor and found out the email was not from him and it was from scammers who had used his identity.
“And the response I got back was they knew about it, and he’s like ‘Oh but I hadn’t come across your son’s name,’” Kimberly said.
Clayton added that his bank did not refund the lost money and he was upset about the scam.
“I was on my way on my way to being a research assistant I thought,” he said
“I was kind of mad at myself, more disappointed in myself that I feel for the scam,” he added.
The mother and son reported the crime to the authorities.
Drexel University told WPVI that it could not intercept outside emails but it had reported the scam to authorities.
