Tickets (not pictured) were sold to students by an individual claiming to be a member of the “University Activities Committee," which doesn't exist. - Christopher Curry/ The Towerlight

Towson University students may have been conned into giving money and information to a false campus activities representative.

Astronomy professor Jennifer Scott reported to the Office of Student Activities that an unknown person came to her class before it had started and asked to speak about a bus trip to New York City and tickets to Dangerfield’s Comedy Night Club in NYC.

“He made it sound like he was from a campus activities organization, a student activities type organization … I just assumed it was a student,” Scott said. “In fact, he may not have ever even said that he was exactly from Towson University, but he used all the right words to make me think that.”

Scott described the unknown person as a tall, brown-haired male who looked slightly older than a traditional college student, “but could still pass [as a student].”

She said that he told students that a similar program had been done last year, “had been very successful,” and that the “University Activities Committee” purchased tickets in bulk from the comedy club to get a discount for students that could be used any time until 2013.

Several students purchased tickets from the unknown person, either by cash or giving credit card information. Junior psychology major Kelsey Toskes witnessed the incident, but did not purchase a ticket. She said the unknown person said tickets cost $10 and you could go to the club anytime and only needed to make a reservation before you went. She said he appeared to be a Towson student, but she became increasingly suspicious when she saw the same student promoting the event in her next class.

“[He was] giving the same speech word for word. My sociology professor thought this was strange, and she was the one who interrupted him and asked him if she could see something like an ID to prove he was part of student activities,” Toskes said in an e-mail. “He pulled out the tickets, but told her he didn’t have an ID on him. My professor then started asking him questions and most of the class walked out.”

Toskes said when she got home from classes, her sociology professor had sent an e-mail to the class notifying them that she contacted the University and they had never heard of the event.

Annie Milli, an OSA student employee for marketing and communications, said that Scott notified their office after the incident so they could respond accordingly.

“Obviously in our office we don’t want people pretending to be people representing our office and taking money and student information,” Milli said.

Milli said she passed the information on to OSA director Dirron Allen.

“I don’t want students to be hurt by it,” she said. “Definitely don’t want anybody getting swindled by using our name.”

Allen confirmed that what the unknown person was reported promoting is not an upcoming event though Towson University.

However, James Goodman, a representative of Dangerfield’s Comedy Night Club, said the tickets are legitimate.

“All they have to do is make a reservation and they’ll have a great time,” he said.

Goodman said they use a third-party marketing company called Logical Marketing, Inc. to promote their events and have been partnered with them for roughly 15 years.

As of Friday, Allen said that the OSA is trying to determine how to handle the situation. He said he thinks it’s important that staff members or students ensure that they are communicating with actual representatives from the University.

“It’s tough because we’re an open campus,” he said. “ It’s about being responsible. For us, that’s not how we go about our business.”

Toskes said the thought that any person can walk onto campus and pretend they are a student is scary.

“Even though the tickets seem to be legit, this whole thing could have easily been a scam and no one would have known,” she said. “If the boy didn’t come into both of my classes and my professor didn’t question him, we may have never known this was even occurring.”

Allen made it clear that the Campus Activities Board does not promote upcoming events by going into classrooms and selling tickets.

“We are in the process of figuring this out and once we do, we’ll respond accordingly,” he said.

This is not the first instance for campus activities fraud on college campuses in the region. In December, a similar incident was reported at West Virginia University.

The Daily Athenaem, WVU’s college newspaper, reported that an imposter distributed promotional tickets throughout classrooms for Dangerfield’s Comedy Night Club.

Robin Yorty, executive director of the department of university events confirmed the event.

She said she was first made aware of the early December incident when the Athenaeum contacted her. She also said she believed it was more than one person posing to be a representative from their department.

“They were using our good name as a selling point,” she said. “It was a bogus event and it never happened. I was just taken off guard when I got the call.”

Toskes said the comedy club should take action regarding these promotional methods.

“I think that after this happened at WVU, the comedy club should have done something about it. I think its very strange that a promotional company would allow its workers to travel to different universities, especially ones that aren’t that close to NYC, and allow them to lie to students in order to sell tickets,” she said.