UCLA students have been at the receiving end of a pair of fraudulent check scams that occurred in Westwood over the summer, university police said.
Check scams are fairly common on college campuses because students are often new to doing their own financial transactions and are less familiar with the process, said Brian Washburn, a detective with UCPD.
But the similarity between the two recent scams prompted police to launch an investigation, Washburn said.
A police report about the instances was released last month, several months after the scams first occurred, because police took several weeks to compile a full investigation.
In the first instance, on July 25, a man approached a UCLA student outside of the Bank of America at 930 Westwood Boulevard.
The man told the student he was also a college student and needed help cashing a check to meet his tuition payment deadline, Washburn said.
The student cashed the man’s $4,980 check and gave him the money in cash. She realized the check was fake several days later, Washburn said.
The next day, the man entered the same bank with a different person. Police believe the man was planning on giving the person a similar fraudulent check to cash, Washburn said.
But when an employee in the bank recognized the man from the previous day’s transaction, the man fled the scene, he added.
On Aug. 7, an almost identical scam occurred at the Bank of America on the 10900 block of Wilshire Boulevard.
In this case, a UCLA graduate student cashed a $4,980 check for a woman who claimed to be a student trying to pay her tuition.
Police believe the checks were written for just under $5,000 to avoid the extra scrutiny from managers that is required for checks that are more than $5,000, Washburn said.
The similarities in the checks and the methods used to scam students led police to suspect the man and woman were working together, Washburn said.
Washburn described the man as black, 6 feet, 170 pounds and in his late 20s, with a medium muscular build.
The woman is described as black, 5 feet 9 inches and in her early 20s, with blond hair to her waist and tattoos on the right side of her chest and her right arm.
To avoid check scams, Washburn said students should refrain from accepting checks from people they do not know well, including roommates and other friends who students have not known for extended periods of time.
Anyone with information about the recent check scams in Westwood can call UCPD at 310-825-1491.
Compiled by Erin Donnelly, Bruin senior staff.