Central Coast school districts warn parents of school website scams
An online scam is targeting schools on the central coast. The scam involves fake school websites, students and money. If you type in gonzalesspartans.com you find a site equipped with a home page, a list of central coast sport schedules and the option to buy apparel. The trouble is, it’s a fake.
“Angry, it made us angry because don’t mislead people don’t ruin the trust that we work so hard to build,” said Gonzales Superintendent, Liz Modena.
Modena said when she found out what was going on, she took to social media. She posted an alert to parents about scam sites like, carmelpadres.com, soledadaztecs.com, salinascowboys.com, and northsalinasvikings.com. Staff members at Gonzales high said they hope the scam doesn’t bring sales down for their school.
“Our athletic team sells logo shirts or sweatshirts, part of the proceeds come back to the team,” said Modena.
“Something like this is very low you see it in the news you kind of almost don’t believe it until it really hits home and I mean somebody high jacking a school website that’s a pretty low thing to do,” said Gonzales coach Cesar Ayon.
School staff said it’s the students who are being short changed because that money should go towards their extracurricular activities.
Gonzales and Soledad school districts said they’ve reported the site to the police and the FBI is now investigating. Since the recent complaints some of the scam sites added disclaimers that they’re not affiliated with the schools and contact information isn’t posted.
“I just want them to be informed consumers you know if they want to purchase something from this organization know that you will get a product but it’s not supporting the school in any way,” said Modena.
