How about this for a clever scam. Build a website for a fancy but ficticious college get people to apply with an applicaton fee and then reject them.

Of course, to pull off the scam you'd have to show people photos of a real college to draw them in. That's where Reed College came in.

The scamster, who has yet to be identified, is believed to be somewhere in China. The least they should be able to do is take down the web site, right?