University teaches you many useful things.

How to reference an essay. How to survive a 9am lecture. How many different meals can technically be made from pasta.

Unfortunately, it can also introduce you to a whole new collection of people trying to steal your money.

Students can make attractive targets for scammers. You're opening new bank accounts, applying for accommodation, receiving student finance, buying things online, looking for part-time work and dealing with organisations you've probably never dealt with before.

And scammers know it.

The Student Loans Company says fraudsters deliberately target periods when maintenance payments arrive. In the 2025/26 academic year alone, it reported stopping £45.5 million from being stolen from students.

So here are 12 scams every UK university student should know about, and the warning signs to look for.

1. The Fake Student Finance Message

Let's begin with an obvious target.

Your maintenance loan.

Imagine you're expecting your next payment and receive a text:

Your Student Finance payment has been suspended. Please verify your bank details immediately to prevent further delays.

There's a link.

The website looks convincing.

You enter your details.

You've just handed them to a scammer.

This type of text-message fraud is known as smishing, and the Student Loans Company specifically warns that scammers target students around maintenance-loan payment periods.

🚩 Watch out for:

• messages demanding urgent action
• links asking you to confirm banking information
• requests for passwords or login details
• messages saying your payment will be cancelled
• unexpected WhatsApp or social-media messages claiming to be Student Finance.

The Student Loans Company says it will never ask you to provide personal or financial information by email or text. Student Finance England also doesn't provide services through WhatsApp or initiate social-media conversations about your entitlement.

The Loomz rule

Don't use the link.

Go independently to the official Student Finance service and log into your account there.

Official Student Finance service

2. The Student Accommodation That Doesn't Exist

You've left accommodation late.

Everything decent appears to be gone.

Then suddenly:

Beautiful studio.

Perfect location.

Suspiciously affordable.

The "landlord" explains that demand is enormous, but fortunately you can secure it by transferring a deposit today.

You send £800.

The landlord disappears.

And the flat either belongs to somebody else or never existed in the first place.

🚩 Warning signs:

• pressure to transfer money immediately
• rent that's dramatically below similar properties
• excuses about why you can't view the property
• requests for money before you've properly verified who you're dealing with
• somebody claiming to be abroad
• communication only through WhatsApp
• bank details belonging to somebody with a different name.

Never let “Someone else is about to take it” override basic checks.

A bargain isn't a bargain if the bedroom is fictional.

3. The Fake Landlord or Letting Agent

Sometimes the property itself is real.

The person offering it isn't.

Fraudsters can copy genuine property listings, photographs, descriptions and sometimes even details of legitimate agents, and advertise them elsewhere.

To you, everything looks normal.

That's why checking the person or company behind the listing matters as much as checking the property.

Before sending significant amounts of money, verify the agent or landlord independently and make sure you understand exactly what you're paying for.

And don't use contact information supplied solely by the suspicious advert to verify the suspicious advert.

That's basically asking the scammer whether the scammer is a scammer.

4. The Amazing Part-Time Job

University is expensive.

So this catches people at exactly the right moment.

You see an advert:

REMOTE STUDENT ASSISTANT

£25 PER HOUR

NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

WORK WHENEVER YOU WANT

Apparently the UK economy has finally decided to become incredibly generous.

Or perhaps not.

Fake job scams can take several forms.

You might be asked to pay an upfront "registration", "training" or "equipment" fee.

You might be asked for sensitive personal information.

You might receive a fake cheque or payment and be instructed to send some of the money elsewhere.

Or the "job" might actually be recruiting you into something much more serious...

5. The Money Mule Scam

This one deserves particular attention because you might not initially think you're the victim.

Someone contacts you through Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp or another platform.

They have an easy way for you to make money.

All you need to do is:

1. let some money enter your bank account;
2. transfer it somewhere else;
3. keep a percentage.

Easy money.

Except the money may be proceeds of crime.

You've potentially just helped somebody launder money.

MoneyHelper warns that criminals specifically target young people on social media with promises of making hundreds of pounds quickly. Acting as a money mule is illegal and can result in your bank account being closed and create serious problems accessing financial services.

🚩 The giant warning sign:

Someone wants to use your bank account to move their money.

Don't.

It doesn't matter whether they call it:

• processing payments
• crypto trading
• commission
• investment
• account rental
• transferring funds
• helping their business.

Your bank account is yours.

Never allow someone else to use it to move money.

6. The Fake Parcel Text

You've ordered:

a duvet,

three textbooks,

some trainers,

a phone charger,

and approximately 19 things you suddenly discovered were absolutely essential for university.

Then you receive:

We attempted to deliver your parcel. A £1.49 redelivery charge is required.

Seems plausible.

You probably are expecting a parcel.

That's what makes these messages effective.

The small payment isn't necessarily the real objective. The fake website may be trying to capture your card or personal information.

The simple solution

Don't use the link in the message.

Open the retailer or courier's official website or app yourself and check the tracking information there.

7. The Facebook Marketplace Bargain

Students buy loads of second-hand stuff.

• Desks.
• Chairs.
• Games consoles.
• Bikes.
• Phones.
• Furniture.
• Textbooks.

And Marketplace-style platforms can be brilliant for it.

They can also contain scammers.

A common pattern is:

Amazing item + amazing price + payment required before collection = item mysteriously ceases to exist.

Safer habits

For local purchases, inspect the item before handing over money where practical.

Be particularly cautious if somebody:

• refuses collection
• wants a bank transfer immediately
• suddenly invents another interested buyer
• sends you away from the platform
• asks you to pay through an unusual method
• offers an expensive item at an absurdly low price.

Your £900 MacBook probably isn't being sold for £180 because somebody is "moving tomorrow".

8. The Fake Freshers' Event

Freshers' Week creates almost perfect conditions for ticket scams.

Thousands of new students arrive in a city.

Nobody knows which events are legitimate.

Everyone is terrified of missing out.

Suddenly you're being told:

🔥 OFFICIAL FRESHERS SUPER MEGA WRISTBAND 🔥

ONLY 17 LEFT

EVERYONE FROM YOUR UNI IS GOING

Possibly.

Or possibly somebody has discovered that adding OFFICIAL to an Instagram post doesn't actually require official status.

Before buying tickets, check:

• who's organising the event
• whether the venue actually lists it
• whether your Students' Union is involved
• whether the seller has a genuine history
• what the refund policy says.

And be careful buying tickets privately from strangers.

FOMO is an excellent sales technique.

It is not an excellent fraud-detection system.

9. The Fake HMRC Tax Refund

This can catch students with part-time or summer jobs.

An email or text arrives claiming:

HMRC TAX REFUND: £287.42

Lovely.

All you need to do is click a link and provide some details to receive it.

The specificity of the amount can make it feel genuine.

But don't assume it is.

If you receive unexpected communication supposedly from HMRC, don't blindly follow the supplied link.

Go independently to the official government service and check.

A useful rule applies to almost every organisation in this article:

Don't enter through the door the stranger has given you. Find the official door yourself.

10. The "Your Bank Account Has Been Compromised" Call

Your phone rings.

The caller claims to be from your bank's fraud department.

They know your name.

Perhaps they even appear to be calling from a legitimate-looking number.

There's been suspicious activity.

Fortunately, they've caught it.

Unfortunately, you need to act RIGHT NOW.

You might be asked to:

• provide security codes
• approve something in your banking app
• move money
• transfer your balance into a "safe account".

Stop.

The urgency is part of the attack.

If you're unsure whether a call is genuine, end it and contact your bank independently using a trusted number — for example, from the back of your bank card or inside the bank's official app.

And remember:

Your bank does not need you to move your money to a mysterious "safe account".

11. The QR Code Scam

QR codes are everywhere at university.

Menus.

Posters.

Society events.

Parking.

Payments.

Tickets.

Wi-Fi.

Sign-up forms.

Which makes them extremely convenient.

Unfortunately, a QR code is basically a link you can't read before scanning it.

A fraudulent QR code could direct you to a convincing fake login or payment page.

Someone could even place a malicious QR sticker over a genuine one.

That doesn't mean you should spend three years refusing to scan QR codes.

Just use some judgement.

Be particularly cautious when a QR code asks you to:

• log into your university account
• enter banking details
• make a payment
• download something
• provide sensitive personal information.

Check where it has actually taken you before entering anything.

12. The "Hi Mum / Hi Dad, I've Lost My Phone" Scam

This final one isn't necessarily aimed at you.

It could be aimed at your parents.

A message arrives from an unknown number:

Hi Mum, I've smashed my phone. This is my temporary number. Can you WhatsApp me here? x

A conversation follows.

Then comes the problem.

Your "new phone" can't access online banking.

There's an urgent bill.

Could Mum or Dad possibly pay it?

Of course they can.

Except they aren't talking to you.

Students living away from home can make this story particularly believable because parents aren't physically around to check.

Do your parents a favour

Agree on a simple rule:

If you ever message from a new number asking for money, they call your normal number or verify it's actually you another way before sending anything.

You could even agree on a family question or phrase that a random scammer wouldn't know.

And yes, parents can absolutely fall for scams too.

Try not to look too smug.

They did spend approximately 18 years stopping you from accidentally killing yourself.

The Five-Second Scam Test

Most scams look completely different on the surface.

Underneath, many use the same ingredients.

If a message involves several of these, slow down:

🚨 URGENCY

“You must act within 24 hours.”

💰 MONEY

“Transfer £500 immediately.”

🔐 INFORMATION

“Confirm your password/bank details/security code.”

😨 FEAR

“Your account has been compromised.”

🤑 GREED

“Make £500 this afternoon.”

🤫 SECRECY

“Don't tell the bank what the payment is for.”

🔗 A LINK

“Click here immediately.”

🤔 SOMETHING DOESN'T QUITE ADD UP

Listen to that feeling.

You don't have to understand exactly how the scam works before deciding not to proceed.

AI Means Scams Are Getting Better

There's another problem worth knowing about in 2026.

The old advice was:

“Look for bad spelling and dodgy grammar.”

That's still useful, the Student Loans Company itself lists poor spelling, punctuation and grammar among potential warning signs. 

But don't rely on it.

AI makes it much easier to create professional-looking emails, adverts, messages and websites.

A scam can now have:

✔ perfect English
✔ professional branding
✔ your name
✔ convincing images
✔ a believable story.

So increasingly, the question isn't:

“Does this look professional?”

It's:

“Can I independently verify this?”

What to Do If You Think You've Been Scammed

First: act quickly.

If money has left your bank account, contact your bank immediately.

If you've entered a password into a suspicious website, change it immediately, and change it anywhere else you've reused the same password.

If you've revealed card details, contact your card provider.

If your Student Finance account may have been compromised, contact the Student Loans Company. Current SLC guidance says suspicious communications should be reported and students who think their details may have been compromised should act quickly.

Don't avoid reporting something because you feel embarrassed.

Scammers make money because they're good at manipulating people.

The useful question isn't:

“How did I fall for that?”

It's:

“What do I need to secure now?”

The Golden Rule

If you remember only one thing from this article, make it this:

Stop. Leave the message. Verify it independently.

Bank calls you?

Hang up and contact your bank yourself.

Student Finance texts you?

Open the official service yourself.

Courier sends a payment link?

Check your parcel through the courier independently.

University emails asking you to log in?

Go through your university's normal portal.

Landlord wants £1,000?

Verify the landlord and property first.

Job opportunity sounds unbelievable?

Find out who you're actually dealing with.

That 30-second pause can be the difference between spotting a scam and spending the next three weeks desperately trying to get your money back.

Finally...

University should involve making a few questionable financial decisions.

Paying £7 for a drink at 1am?

Questionable.

Ordering takeaway because nobody can face washing the frying pan?

Questionable.

Buying a traffic cone from somebody for reasons that nobody can adequately explain the following morning?

Also questionable.

But sending your entire maintenance loan to someone because they sent you an urgent WhatsApp message?

Let's avoid that one.

Be suspicious of urgency. Protect your passwords. Never let strangers use your bank account. And when somebody unexpectedly wants your money or personal information, verify who they are before doing anything.

Your maintenance loan already has enough legitimate ways to disappear.

Related articles:

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Free Apps Every Student Should Be Using in 2026 (useful Vs hype)

Don’t Just Take Notes. Turn Them Into Revision Flashcards (Using ChatGPT + Quizlet)

How to Budget at University: Student Guide

Living With Strangers: The Reality of Student Houses (No One Warns You About This)

The Ultimate Guide to Student Discounts (UK)

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