Facebook: "Class of 2013" Scandal Is Unfolding

: Image via CrunchBase, source unknown

“There’s Something Going Down on Facebook. Pay Attention.” That was the title of a post that Brad Ward made on his higher education recruitment blog on December 18. We’ve been following along ever since and it seems that Mr. Ward is really onto “something”.

It seems that Brad noticed quite a few “Class of 2013″ groups being started on Facebook for various universities and he began investigating who it was that was creating them. Brad writes…

Several weeks ago I was contacted by my friend and colleague Michelle at Winthrop about some questions pertaining to her Class of 2013 Facebook Group. The email read:

Since we are on rolling admissions I’ve been watching to see when a 2013 group would spring up. Interestingly we have no info on 18 of the 23 members. In fact, even though they are all out of state they all (include two 08 alum of Miami) seem to be connected. My only thought is that they could be a group of squatters? Would that even be beneficial to them? Have you see anything like this or have any thoughts?

Later, he writes…

Yesterday, we sent out our admit packets. Today, I got on Facebook to see if a Class of 2013 group had popped up yet. I found 2. One has the exact logo that was used for last year’s group, a non-Butler bulldog image, so I click on that one. And I look at the Creator of the group. Patrick Kelly, Plano Senior High School. I check our system. No Patrick Henry that has applied and been admitted to Butler.

I dig deeper into Facebook, searching for ‘Class of 2013′ groups. And here’s a list of what I find.

University of Michigan.
Cornell.
Indiana University.
George Washington University.
Duke (?).
University of Alabama.
Tulane.
Brown. (Interestingly, they didn’t start this group became friends with the creator to get Admin rights. Looking back, this has happened in several groups. More below.)
Northwestern.
Vanderbilt .
Pittsburgh.
University of Illinois.
Auburn.
West Virginia University.
Michigan State University.
Boston University.
Penn State.
University of Wisconsin.
Washington University in St. Louis.
Temple University.
University of Georgia.
University of Chicago.
University of Iowa.
University of Vermont.
Georgetown.
Dartmouth.
Virginia Tech.

And guess what? This is only from the first 7 pages of a search that returns more than 500 results. Start looking at the names of the group creators and admins.

Justin Gaither.
Patrick Kelly.
Jasmine White.
James Gaither.
Josh Egan.
Ashley Thomas.
And more.

See how many times those names appear in admin for these groups, and look at their friends and see how many times those names pop up. A LOT. This isn’t just the Common App Effect, where students apply to every school under the sun. These people aren’t interested in going to every school they have started a group for. No, this is an inside ring with a common purpose..

An inside ring, indeed. As it later turns out, it appears that a Pittsburgh-based marketing company called College Prowler was responsible for creating the fake “Class of 2013″ groups on Facebook. In fact, the CEO of College Prowler, Luke Skurman, posted a comment on Brad’s blog…

Yes, College Prowler has been directly or indirectly involved with the creation of multiple Class of 2013 groups. The original purpose was to use these groups as a way to inform students that they can access a free guide about their new college on our site. No employee or anyone else associated with College Prowler has used these groups to send out messages or wall posts.

Until about an hour ago, I was unaware that College Prowler was working with another company that may have been using fake aliases to create to these groups. The groups that College Prowler was responsible for creating were set up with real accounts. Here are the names that are associated with College Prowler, and they will all be removed immediately from the Class of 2013 groups(all other names are not controlled by College Prowler):
• Mark Tressler
• Ron Tressler
• Brenna Young
• Lisa Young
• Lauren Plavchek
• Jessica Lash

From a big picture perspective, having a marketing strategy using social networking sites (like Facebook) is something that is necessary to be effective in our business. We do pride ourselves on being forward thinking and aggressive. In this instance, in its current form, we have crossed the line and to reiterate, we will be removing our administrator privileges from all of these 2013 groups immediately.

Working with “another company”? It seems that several folks were trying to determine just WHAT company that was. As it turns out, a very intereting Craigslist post had been made in Pittsburgh, under “Marketing Jobs”. The post is located here.

Oops, wait a minute, that post has been deleted by its author. How very strange.

Luckily there is a screenshot of it (click on it to zoom in)…

It seems that College Prowler has been busy…at least “Heather” has, anyway.

As Brad puts it…

Think of it: Sitting back for 8-10 months, (even a few years), maybe friending everyone and posing as an incoming student. Think of the data collection. The opportunities down the road to push affiliate links. The opportunity to appear to be an ‘Admin’ of Your School Class of 2013. The chance to message alumni down the road. The list of possibilities goes on and on and on.

It’s one hell of a marketing idea, no doubt about it. However, getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar is just not good. Besides, this is just deceptive.