By Tom Weber, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Campus police around the St. Louis region are trying to get the word out about a scam involving students who sell back their textbooks.
Tony Griemel, with the UM-St. Louis campus police, says a group of about 12 people have over the past two years worked a number of bookstores at area colleges and universities.
"For instance, they might steal several hundred dollars' worth of textbooks here at our bookstore at UMSL, and then they might take them over to Washington University and sell them," Griemel said Thursday.
The key is that students usually need to present an ID to sell books back, so the scammers have been telling students they lost their ID and asked students to sell their books back for them.
That's why UM-St. Louis sent out an email Thursday, asking students not to help someone trying to sell back books.
Griemel says area bookstores are on notice and they have arrested a few of the scammers. He says the hope now is that appeals to the public will help nab the rest.