High school football players beware – the sketchy and scammy "recruiting assistant" in your DMs is, in fact, sketchy and scammy.
The latest scam to hit the interwebs doesn't involve a Nigerian prince, an online significant other or the IRS. It's a fake recruiting coordinator flooding the inboxes of high school football players looking to earn college offers.
An account by a person posing to be Luke Hughes posted multiple tweets Monday and Tuesday requesting highlight film from prospective athletes so that Tennessee's staff can evaluate them.
However, there's no Luke Hughes on Tennessee's coaching staff. The account is a hoax and is not associated with Volunteers athletics, an athletic department spokesman confirmed Tuesday.
Hundreds of athletes, unaware that the account is not associated with Tennessee football, responded to the account's tweet with information and links to their highlight films.
The scam portion of this sketchiness comes when these hoaxers then ask the teens for money to let them know they're serious about the recruitment and secure their spot for a campus visit (which does not exist).
Man look at this smh..... pic.twitter.com/Ht54OuQE9r
— Kenyatta Watson (@therealkwat) February 11, 2020
The original perpetrator was masquerading as a Tennessee recruiting coordinator, but another claiming to be on staff at Ohio State popped up shortly after. That account, though, was quickly deleted after getting called out by actual Ohio State Director of Recruiting Mark Pantoni.
Another day, another bit of evidence convincing me the Internet might have been a bad idea.
