Scammers are sneaking into DePaul student group chats

Connor Upshaw, Contributing Writer • November 19, 2024

DePaul’s many organizations and resident halls have been using Microsoft’s GroupMe to communicate with students and residents alike. From events to maintenance requests, students use the messaging system to stay in touch and communicate what they need. But a separate — and unwanted — group is also watching the updates: scammers.

Mikey Surtel, a DePaul sophomore who lives on campus, has used GroupMe for sports teams, clubs, fraternity and campus life updates. When someone messaged that they were selling tickets for an upcoming Sabrina Carpenter concert, the deal seemed like it was worth it.

“I thought it was fine because it was someone that lived in the (dorm) building,” Surtel said. “They had a profile picture, and they texted like an actual college student.”

Surtel knew about other students giving away concert tickets for all kinds of reasons, including schedule conflicts. This interaction, however, was anything but normal. After Surtel communicated and sent $300 for three Carpenter tickets through Apple Pay, the tickets never arrived.

“They said the tickets would be there in less than 24 hours and I said to myself, ‘I don’t know about this,’” Surtel said.

Surtel realized that it was a scam, and he immediately filed the charge through his bank account. He also made the administrators of the group chat aware of what happened, and they removed the person who scammed him. Other messages continued to pop up from other people who claimed they had tickets, laptops and other goods for sale.

Jason Yao, the associate director of infrastructure operations at DePaul, has been made aware of these unwanted guests in student-run group chats.

“The scams attempted through GroupMe are similar to those attempted through email, and users need to be vigilant to recognize these scams,” Yao said.

To help, he said students overseeing the groups can use security measures like strong passwords and multi-factor authentication to help protect the privacy and safety of those who use GroupMe, which is not run through DePaul but is set up by students themselves.

When they were first being used by many clubs and residence halls residents, GroupMe chats were public with open access. But it has become clear that security is an issue as scammers have invaded groups.

Swapna George is a junior and treasurer for PROpel DePaul, an organization for students who are entering the product and project management field. The organization has about 70 members and uses GroupMe for reminders of events. Her group has had similar issues in GroupMe chats.

“There were people that would randomly join and say, ‘I’m selling tickets for $500,’ and it was obvious that they were just spamming,” George said.

She said the scammers got in via the organization’s Linktree on Instagram as it was a public method to gain access to the chat. George and other group administrators removed eight people who were engaging with their chat in this way.

Since the beginning of the fall quarter, the organization has shifted to only using email communications for all updates.

“This 100% turned me off of using GroupMe,” George said.

George has looked into using Discord, Band or Slack as alternatives, since emailing can have limited function.

As it stands, these issues with GroupMe remain a large downside for anyone looking to use it for personal or business reasons. Other schools have also reported on this issue and a lack of security as a problem.

From now on, Surtel said he’ll only be purchasing his tickets on verified sites and warns others about the risks.

“If someone is selling something, ask to see their face or talk about it over the phone,” Surtel said. “But personally, I just wouldn’t do it.”

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