Police say no evidence of criminal activity tied to clipboards circulating at Toronto campuses

By Tina Yazdani

Toronto Police say they aren’t looking into suspicious clipboards that have been making the rounds at University of Toronto and Ryerson.

Students raised concerns after noticing them being passed around their lecture halls this week, asking for their personal information.

Ryerson University student Annie Driscoll says her teacher was surprised to find one circulating a 250-student class.

“She had not handed anything out, but then someone went to the front and gave it to her and she was like ‘I didn’t give this out,’” said Driscoll.

“So somebody must’ve come into the class and started handing it out to students and it went around the class.”

At first glance the forms seem harmless enough: they claim to be from an unnamed Canadian company promising high-paying management jobs next summer.

The forms ask for their first and last name, cell phone number, faculty, and which city they’ll be living in during the summer of 2019.

While police have told CityNews they’re not investigating the matter, Ryerson is apparently under the impression that they are.

They tell us in a statement:

“Ryerson University’s security team has received complaints about clipboards being distributed in classrooms. Toronto police service has been advised and are investigating. A security bulletin was sent to the Ryerson community on Wednesday morning.”

Meanwhile Toronto Police spokesperson Caroline de Kloet tells us: “At this time, this is not a police matter. We have no evidence to believe that these clipboards in classrooms are linked to criminal behaviour.”

Ryerson student Jakob Glogauer said he put his name and number down on one of the forms.

“I’m a student, I’m in financial need as most students are so that’s why I put my name down,” he said. “$15,000 to $20,000 can cover almost two years of education … so it was very enticing.”

Some former students have reached out to CityNews saying not all clipboard recruiters are illegitimate businesses.

“I signed up for a clipboard on campus in 2011 at Western University where I went to school,” said Jordan Anderson. “And I made sure that that clipboard had a logo on it, so I was aware of who I was signing up with at the time which was an important factor to me. Now afterwards I went on to work at a student service company. In this case, it was painting and it was one of the best experiences of my life and really kick-started my entrepreneurial career. After that I went on to graduate university and work at a number of Fortune 500 companies.”

He did warn to be wary of unmarked clipboards.

“Anytime you’re signing up for anything, it’s important to have full disclosure from the company that’s requesting your information. At least with the logo and with the branding you can do some research online and then proceed accordingly.”

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