Parent Payment Scam Information

Independent Schools Queensland have recently alerted us to a school fee payment scam which has targeted some parents from their member schools. We are sharing this information so that you may better protect yourselves from such financial fraud. The reported scam takes the following form:

Parents are contacted by a scammer pretending to be performing fee collection for their school. The scammer offers an attractive discount for immediate credit card payment of their due fees over the phone. The scammer requests details of their last invoice and their credit card details and processes that payment to the associated school with a valid payment receipt provided to the parent.

The scammer then processes a second payment for that same amount, offers their apologies to the parent and promises to refund that “accidental” second payment. However, the refund is never received and by the time the parent contacts the school and/or their bank, the second payment has already been processed and transferred away.

To help protect yourself from this scam, please be aware that:

• The College will not request details of your last or current Invoice. Our Business Office already has all this information at their disposal.

• While the College does offer some fee discounts, such as for payment of a full year’s fees at the start of the year, we will not offer discounts for “immediate payments”.

• Payment to the College may be made using your bank’s B-Pay or Direct Debit services, through the Parent Portal, or in person at the College. We will never demand immediate Credit Card payment over the phone.

• If you do wish to make fee payments via Credit Card over the phone, please initiate the phone call to the College yourself via our registered phone number 07 5436 7300.

As always, if you or any member of your family suspect you have been subject to financial fraud or have unidentified transactions on your accounts, please contact your bank immediately.

We offer this advice in the hope that it helps protect our community.

Mr Steve Rattey, ICT Manager