HS Players Targeted by Recruiting Scam

High School athletes hoping to make the jump to the collegiate level can make for attractive targets for scam artists looking to make an easy buck.

Footballscoop.com reports that coaches and players alike should be on alert for an ongoing scam, wherein someone using the Twitter handle @RecruitingEZ reaches out to high school players claiming to be Jeff Hecklinski, football recruiting coordinator for the University of Kansas. 

The handle posing as Hecklinski also claims to be the CEO of a recruiting service called EZRecruiting, which promises to send a high school player’s game film to coaches in exchange for a fee. The fees range from $20 to be sent to a junior college, all the way up to $100 for a package of services including mentoring and “personal one-on-one access.”

Footballscoop.com reported on the alleged scam after receiving an email from one concerned high school coach. The coach alerted KU football of the situation, and the Jayhawks reportedly replied saying that the coach was not the first to complain. 

“The Twitter account for this guy has a ton of followers and there are people paying for this service and they believe it is really Coach (Hecklinski),” the high school coach wrote in an email to Football Scoop. “These types of services are robbing our kids hopes and their wallets. This Twitter account should be shut down or at the very least be exposed as a fraud.”

The coach interacted via direct message with the Twitter account pretending to be an interested prospect, and Football Scoop posted screenshots of the interaction. 

Since Footballscoop.com posted its story, the Twitter handle appears to have been changed.