UCM warns of hack as students lose financial aid money in scam
WARRENSBURG, Mo. — Students at the University of Central Missouri tell FOX4 they’ve lost thousands of dollars in financial aid money because of a phishing scam.
The news comes on the same week the university sent out an alert that its computer system was hacked.
Bailey Nield is a senior at UCM, but this week she’s more worried about her finances than her studies. More than $4,000 in federal money that was supposed to have been transferred from the university’s financial aid office to her bank account has suddenly disappeared.
“I’m a single mom with an 8-month-old baby and a full-time college student, so it’s a pretty big deal,” said Nield, who is studying secondary education.
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“I called the financial aid office, and it said it looks like you’ve been hacked.”
Bailey said last week she received what she now knows was a spam text asking her to verify a passcode. She responded to the text because she thought it was from the university.
The passcode that she verified helped hackers steal her federal loan money before it was ever deposited into her account.
But not every student who lost money received a suspicious text or email.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” said Drew Sherrod, who is also out about $4,000.
Sherrod, who is studying cybersecurity, said he never received any suspicious texts or emails.
Sherrod’s mom Terry Martinez called UCM to find out what happened to his student loan.
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“The finance office said, ‘Oh we transferred it into your Navy Federal Credit Union.’ I said that would have been helpful if we actually had a Navy Federal Credit Union account,” Martinez said.
She said the finance office then told her that hackers must have rerouted her son’s money. She said the school blamed her son, saying he must of clicked on a spam email or text.
“I knew he hadn’t clicked on anything,” Martinez said.
So who is to blame?
Martinez said its UCM who this week alerted students to a “cyber incident” with the school’s computer system.
The school said in a statement to students that the cyberattack appeared to have affected “entities in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois,” and it was working with the FBI and state and local authorities.
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UCM insisted, however, that “there continues to be no indication that student and employee personal information has been compromised.”
But Martinez said she doesn’t think her son or other students should be responsible for having to repay federal loans for money they never received. She said that burden should fall on UCM.
“These federal funds were put in your hands, and you are responsible for them,” Martinez said.
