Anyone Can Scam You, Even Your Folks
You might feel pretty safe with your parents, but more and more stories are coming out about scammer parents—especially when it comes to getting into college.
By now, we have all heard of the famous faces who have gotten caught up in the college admission scandal, but they are not the only ones. Other families are also involved in the scandal, including a wealthy Chinese family who paid $6.5 million in 2017 to get their daughter admitted to Stanford. They did not pay the school, of course, but they did pay college consultant Rick Singer, who is at the center of the college admission scandal.
The Los Angeles Times broke this story, and it is unknown, at this time, if the family knew that they were doing something wrong. Neither the family nor the student, who all live in Beijing, have been charged with any crimes. Stanford has released a statement to say that it has not received any money from the student’s family (or from Singer), and it was not even aware of any of this until the Times’s story was published.
Other families associated with the college admission scandal are starting to get their days in court, including Bruce and Davina Isackson, who pleaded guilty in a Boston federal court for their involvement in the scam. They were the first to plead guilty and also the first who have said that they will fully cooperate with the investigators and testify against the other parents who are accused in the scandal.
The Isacksons are accused of paying $600,000 to ensure that their daughters were admitted into the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. The money was paid to admit both of the girls to the schools as fake athletic recruits, and it was used to pay Singer to rig the entrance exam score for one of them.
The couple did release a statement through their attorney. They expressed their regrets for their actions and stated, “Our duty as parents was to set a good example for our children, and instead we have harmed and embarrassed them by our misguided decisions.”
There are many parents involved in this scam, including 12 parents who have already agreed to plead guilty. This includes actress Felicity Huffman.
Other parents are fighting the charges, and they could be in for a rough road; the parents and coaches who are helping the investigators are full of information, and it could harm any efforts of those whom have pleaded not-guilty.
Since the scandal has hit, even former coaches are stepping up, including those at USC and the University of Texas at Austin. This also indicates that there could be more indictments coming soon.
Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.
