Helping education leaders protect student wellbeing, staff, institutional finances and trust in campus services.
Would your students recognise a fraudulent job offer before sharing their identity documents or paying an upfront fee? PORGiESOFT Intelligence Group's May Fraud Intelligence Quarterly Pack examines employment, ticket and QR code scams affecting young people and wider communities. Its August briefing adds executive impersonation and synthetic phishing email chains. These themes bring three connected challenges into focus for colleges, universities and their students' unions.
Scams disrupting student wellbeing and participation
A Head of Careers and Employability may hear about a convincing remote job requiring an equipment payment. Student Advisers may encounter fake event tickets promoted through familiar messaging groups. How easily could financial pressure make either offer persuasive? Lost savings, stolen identities and shame can affect attendance and wellbeing, while hardship requests and complex support needs place additional demands on student services.
Trusted institutional identities used against staff
A Finance Director could receive an apparently approved supplier instruction embedded in a fabricated email chain. A Chief Information Security Officer may investigate fake recruitment portals that imitate familiar sign-in pages. These risks extend beyond the initial payment or password: compromised accounts can expose institutional information, disrupt work and require security, finance and HR teams to coordinate a costly response.
Unclear ownership across campus functions
Who connects a careers complaint with an IT security report and a student's welfare needs? A Director of Student Services, Designated Safeguarding Lead and University Secretary may each see only part of the issue. Poor handovers can delay support and damage institutional trust. Where institutional personal data is breached, the Data Protection Officer must assess risk and any applicable notification obligations.
Four ways the Fraud Risk Intelligence Quarterly Pack can help
The quarterly pack can help education institutions connect fraud prevention with their existing responsibilities in four practical ways.
1) Make student awareness relevant to real decisions
The employment and ticket chapters provide concrete tactics that careers and student support teams can use when developing briefings. Would a student know why a recruiter asking for a release fee is concerning? Material can be adapted for induction, placements, graduation and major events, helping students recognise risks where they encounter them and find verified sources of support.
2) Review the services and identities criminals could copy
The pack recommends examining recruitment verification, customer-facing forms and QR code journeys. IT, HR and Estates Managers can apply these themes to their own portals, job advertisements and payment touchpoints. Testing how students and staff verify an unexpected message can reveal practical improvements to guidance, reporting routes and institutional brand protection.
3) Give frontline teams a coordinated response
Recommended actions for welfare, security and communications functions can inform a shared approach between the institution and its students' union. Teams can agree how to recognise a concern, escalate an account compromise and connect someone with wellbeing support. Clear handovers help reduce repeated explanations and make it easier for students and staff to report promptly.
4) Support leadership planning and accountability
Risk teams can use the pack's organisational response framework to review ownership, control gaps and awareness priorities. The governing body can then examine actions alongside local incident reports and student feedback. Which themes deserve attention before the next intake or recruitment campaign? A regular review supports more focused resource decisions and connects financial resilience with the institution's educational mission.
Could better fraud intelligence protect your campus community before the next scam arrives? Contact intelligence@porgiesoft.com or visit porgiesoft.com/threats to request the quarterly pack, discuss an education briefing or explore digital and printed options.
