College is expensive. Guarding your finances is vital

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Any parent who has sent a son or daughter to college knows that money matters.

But so does protecting it.

And college students may be more vulnerable in terms of finances than one might think.

"In recent years we found that 18 to 24-year-olds have lost more money to scammers than any other age group including seniors," said Kat Schmieder with the Better Business Bureau of Upstate New York . "Scammers are targeting people in different ways especially via text message. And this is a generation that relies primarily on using a cell phone for all communications," she said.

Credit card caution

The first thing your son or daughter may learn at college is they need additional items. Plastic makes obtaining incidentals very easy.

"It can obviously be very tempting to apply