Fake College Recruiter Arrested: Malcolm Walker Scammed Families Out of Thousands, Police Say

Gainesville Police arrest Malcolm Walker for theft by deception after falsely claiming to help student-athletes get college scholarships—leaving families devastated and out of thousands

39-year old Malcolm Walker has been accused of ripping off families posing as a fake college recruiter / Hall County Jail

According to a report by Fox 5 Atlanta's Eric Mock, 39-year Malcolm Walker has been arrested by Gainesville (George) Police on a charge of theft by deception for deceiving coaches and families with a scam that he was a college recruiter that could get their kids into a college.

Families soon ended up finding out that not only was Walker not a recruiter, but that he scammed them out of hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of dollars, per the report.

Per the report by Fox 5 Atlanta, one case involved Phyllip Becoats and Gainesville senior B.J. Bailey, who paid Walker a sum of $1,023 and the latter was promised to be taken on a recruiting trip to Colorado to meet with coaches. Walker, just before the trip, ended up cancelling and provided a bevy of excuses for roughly six months on why he couldn't come through with rescheduling the recruiting visit.

After numerous attempts to try and recoup the monies that were paid to Walker, who currently has over 74,000 followers on Facebook, Becoats went to authorities to file charges against the former regarding the alleged deception.

"He kept blowing me off and blowing me off and then that's when I just got to the point like, ‘Man, I ain't even going to worry about it and I'm just going to go up here to Gainesville Police Department and file a report on it,'" Becoats said. 

When the report was filed, several other agencies echoed a similar story had happened to individuals in their jurisdictions. Come to find out, Walker had already scammed numerous others out of monies, totaling well over several thousand dollars.

"He talks the talk, but, unfortunately, that's all he's got going for him. He's just stealing these people's money and leaving them with absolutely nothing," Kevin Holbrook of the Gainesville Police said via the report.

"We've been notified by multiple law enforcement agencies, multiple individuals who have said, ‘Hey, that's the same guy who did this to us.'"

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