Students across the North are far more likely than the rest of us to run into a scam, and most do so within weeks of unpacking. Group Editor Andrew Palmer reports on a new campaign to help them spot the trap before it springs.
For many students, the first term at university brings a crash course in independence: a first budget, a first rent payment, a first part-time job. For fraudsters, it brings something else entirely: opportunity.

New research from Mastercard and NatWest Group suggests that 76 per cent of students in Yorkshire and the Humber have encountered a scam, more than double the 36 per cent recorded among people not in higher education. Of those who spotted one, 77 per cent said it happened within three months of arriving on campus.

The picture is much the same across the rest of the North. In the North East, 69 per cent of students have come across a scam, with 85 per cent saying it occurred in their first three months. In the North West the figure is 67 per cent, with 82 per cent caught early in their university career.

Nationally, 69 per cent of students have encountered a scam, and NatWest estimates that students could lose around £20 million to fraud over the coming academic year. With two million people starting or returning to higher education this autumn, including some half a million freshers handling their own money for the first time, the scale of the risk is plain.

Confidence, meanwhile, is in short supply. NatWest’s Student Handover Report, which canvassed more than 5,000 undergraduates on the money lessons they would pass on to the next intake, found that only 27 per cent feel very confident they could recognise a financial scam.

The most common traps are fake job adverts and get-rich-quick schemes run through investment platforms that appear legitimate or come recommended (37 per cent), bogus listings on online marketplaces (36 per cent), and banking and cryptocurrency scams (32 per cent).

In response, NatWest, Mastercard and the Home Office have launched Stop! Think Fraud, a campaign offering practical advice alongside a series of eye-catching warning posters by UK designers Luke Insect, Gavin Connell and Samuel Tomson. The artwork is free to universities and students’ unions, and is intended to sit as comfortably on a halls noticeboard as on a bedroom wall.

Fraud Minister Lord Hanson said criminals were deliberately targeting freshers with bogus jobs, fake flats and scam investments. “I urge every student to Stop! Think Fraud,” he said. “Taking a moment to check could stop fraudsters from emptying your accounts at the start of a new term.”

According to James Holian, Chief Customer and Operations Officer at NatWest Group, many scams begin on social media. “Understanding the warning signs and taking a moment to pause before acting can make a real difference,” he said.

Simon Forbes, President of Mastercard UK and Ireland, noted that fraudsters are forever changing their methods, which makes awareness more important than ever.

The campaign’s advice is refreshingly simple. Check an investment firm is authorised using the Financial Conduct Authority’s Firm Checker before parting with any money. Look up seller reviews on trusted sites before snapping up a bargain. Walk away from any job that promises easy money, asks you to pay before you are paid, or offers cash for the use of your bank account. And never transfer a deposit on a flat you have not viewed in person with the letting agency.

It is advice that costs nothing to follow. Ignoring it, as thousands of students are discovering, can cost a great deal.