WARNING! New Scam Just Hit Minnesota With Ploy To Help School

Heads up, Minnesota! Another scam just popped up and this time, it isn't trying to victimize you on Facebook Marketplace or ask you to buy thousands of dollars of gift cards. Nope. This time, it is using our kids and schools as bait. And this scam is a good one and could easily trick you...took me a bit to find anything to prove that they have actually scammed anyone already. But...I did.

Another Scam Just Popped Up in Minnesota

I am not sure what your true feelings are about scams but here is mine - I know people who have been victims of scams and who have lost thousands of dollars. Scammers are smart and know exactly what they are doing. They are the reason why I never click on links or attachments in basically anything - Facebook, e-mails, text messages. At work, I hit the "phishing" tab multiple times a day. Some of the messages I get that are scams are ridiculous, yet, people are falling for these scams every day.

Not sure what scams look like? Below are a few examples of scams that have popped up in the news and have been happening in Minnesota:

Minnesota High School Warns Community Of Scam Pretending to Raise Money for Football Team

While I was at work today, one of my friends sent me a note alerting me that a company in California was soliciting businesses in the Rochester, Minnesota area stating that they were raising money for the John Marshall High School football program. Hmmm...we have local marketing companies (aka...Townsquare Media) that can do everything needed for our local businesses and nonprofits and yet a company in California wants to "help". Yeah, I'd love to see that company sitting on the bleachers at John Marshall cheering on the local team when our team at Townsquare Media are there every game and at all of our local schools. California is NOT local and this sounds phishy.

RED FLAGS to Watch Out For in Latest Scam That Appeared in Minnesota

I asked my friend to send me the documents to see if it looked legit or not and as soon as I started reading, I immediately took a few red flags out of my back pocket and started waving them.

There is a lot more to this e-mail, most of it involves sponsorship levels, prices, the deliverables that businesses will receive for their sponsorship, etc. However, there are a bunch of red flags that popped up right away for me that I wanted to make sure you saw:

There were a few links in the e-mail (RED FLAG)...that I did NOT click.
One major thing missing in this e-mail was the business name. It was not listed anywhere other than the e-mail address that it came from. (RED FLAG).
The signature line with the person's name didn't include a last name. (RED FLAG).
Phone number on the e-mail does not match the phone number on the website. (RED FLAG)
As I search that phone number in multiple ways, that phone number does not exist. (RED FLAG)
Speaking of company website, that isn't listed in the e-mail either. (RED FLAG)

Then the real fun began for me. Seriously, if I didn't work in radio, I'd be hunting down people on the internet. I am really good at it. In between talking during my radio show, I was on the hunt to figure out who this company truly was. I already knew that this was probably a scam but now I wanted proof that they actually scammed someone.

The website for GameDay Live was built about 6 years ago, it is hosted by GoDaddy.com and hasn't been updated in a very long time. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just information. According to scamadvisor.com, there are quite a few positive things about the website but there is one thing that was a red flag for me, they were hiding their identity.

Reviews for GameDay Live Tell The True Story Of This Company

There are always going to be good reviews. People that want to scam you will make sure that there are always good reviews to see. I don't care about those. I wanted the dirt...and I found it.

The Better Business Burea game MyGameDayLive Inc an F rating.

Several complaints were listed on the BBB website that shows how individuals or businesses were scammed out of money based on information similar to what a Rochester, Minnesota business received from GameDay Live.

That's not it though. I found a few unsavory reviews on Google about the company as well.

John Marshall High School in Rochester, Minnesota Alerts Community About My GameDay Live

A lot of phone calls, text messages, Facebook messages, and meetings were happening on Wednesday in Rochester to figure all of this out to help keep our community safe. If you have a second, please go send a thank you to your kids' booster clubs, athletic directors, and the volunteers that work with your sports programs because I saw some of the text threads for this whole issue. Honestly, it was a bit of a time sucker today but hopefully all that work behind the scenes will save a business or individual from being scammed. You can help ensure that doesn't happen as well.

John Marshall posted the following message to alert families and businesses about the scam. Please, please, share this story so everyone knows NOT to work with My GameDay Live.