Students charged with bilking schools of thousands in tuition scam

PHILADELPHIA - Federal authorities charged today that a ring of con-artists posing as part-time students took advantage of a &#34;student-friendly&#34; tuition refund policy at Temple University; to bilk the school out of $76 thousand. <br> <br> The eight suspects, including one from Georgia, are accused of enrolling in classes at Temple using phony names and Social Security numbers, then intentionally overpaying their tuition -- but with bad checks they knew would eventually bounce. <br> <br> The school then refunded the overpayments before realizing that the checks were drawing on empty bank accounts. <br> <br> Prosecutors said participants in the scheme cashed the refunds, and in most cases withdrew from the school before taking any classes. <br> <br> Between 1996 and 1998, the accused passed about $94 thousand in bad checks at Temple, prosecutors said. One, 33-year-old Grady McCrary of Stone Mountain, Georgia, is also accused of obtaining $22,775 in federally funded student loans that were never repaid. <br> <br> U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said McCrary, who had previously attended Temple, was the ringleader and appeared to be perfecting the scheme so they could implement it at other schools.<br> <br> After finding initial success in Philadelphia at Temple, prosecutors said the suspects also enrolled at the University of Maryland and the DeVry Institute of Technology in Decatur, Georgia, and began passing bad tuition checks there as well.