New phone scam targets Niagara's Chinese university students

Brock University has issued a warning about a scam targeting its Chinese students.

Someone with a local phone number called multiple Chinese students at the St. Catharines university in the past week, says a release. The person on the other end claimed to work at a legal firm.

One Brock student sent the scammer "a significant amount of money," the school says. The warning does not say specifically what the scam is or what the student is being told or asked to do by the caller.

The incident prompted Brock's security to team up with its international services staff and Chinese students' association to spread the word.

The university warns students not to give out personal information over the phone to people they don't know. Consulates and embassies never ask a third party to contact people over the phone for information, and don't transfer call recipients to Interpol or other prosecutor's offices, it says.

It urges anyone who falls victim to the call to contact campus security, the Chinese consulate or Niagara Regional Police Service.

McMaster University says it's unaware of any such scam in Hamilton.

It wouldn't be the first time Chinese international students were targeted in Hamilton though.

In November, at least two students were victim to a scam that made families back home believe their children had been kidnapped.