New first-year students at Canadian universities have been the targets of a scam involving fake Facebook groups.
 
The class of 2013 groups at various Canadian universities claim to be created by students.
 
However, the groups often have administrators who are not students and have been connected to companies rather than to universities.
 
The scam was first identified in the United States by Brad Ward, who at the time was the electronic communication co-ordinator at Butler University.
 
He posted a warning on his blog in December 2008 identifying fake “Class of 2013” groups at hundreds of American colleges.
 
He wrote that many of the group admins and creators were the same for multiple groups, some appearing as often as 50 times.
 
Ward linked the groups to two companies that sell 
products aimed at university students, College Prowler and Match U.
 
Matthew Melnyk, electronic outreach officer for Brock University, identified a similar strategy targeting Canadian universities.
 
He said he first noticed a fake group for the Brock Class of 2013 in February 2009.
 
In June, he discovered the group was connected to many others via a group called “Grads of 2009 (Canada).”
 
He linked several of the fake groups to Eruption Productions, a promotions company that organizes campus parties.
 
Melnyk reported the groups to Facebook and says most of them have been deleted.
 
Melnyk said he didn’t want to eliminate groups or censor online discussion, but that his job involves managing Brock’s reputation online.
 
“When groups represent themselves as official, it is problematic . . . We’re going to be vigilant about people pretending to be the university, and potentially misleading our students,” he said.
 
There are several Class of 2013 groups for Carleton University, none of which were among those identified by Melnyk as fake.
 
Ward said the fake groups have changed his approach to social media.
 
Rather than letting a university’s web presence be purely student-driven, he said he thinks “universities need to step up and at least own the administrative rights to their online presence in an effort to not only protect their institutional brand but also the students who attend.”