ATLANTA — Emory University paid an undisclosed amount of money to someone it thought was the booking company for the rap group Migos.
The school wanted the group to perform for its "Dooley's Week" celebration.
The person it paid turned out to be a con artist who was only pretending to work for Migos.
The university said in a statement: "Emory University negotiated with and paid an entity which fraudulently claimed to represent a major entertainment act to appear on Emory’s campus."
"Overall, I think people are pretty disappointed. People were looking forward to it," student Philipp Humann said.
Emory filed a police report and is now scrambling to find someone to perform at the concert.
"I think it's kind of irresponsible that they didn't do enough research into this third-party organization," Humann said.
In a letter to students, Emory's Student Programming Council, which helped organize the concert, said in part: "We regret to inform you that Migos will no longer be performing this Dooley's Weeks. It sucks. We're disappointed. We are students and were just as excited as you were.... "We are working day and night to find the best possible artist for Dooley's Week and plan to reach out to the Emory Community as soon as we are able to."
Channel 2's Justin Wilfon repeatedly asked the school how much it paid, but school officials have not responded.
He did learn that is was just a deposit and not the full amount.
"(It's) something that happens to a lot of people, honestly. But, I think it's interesting that it happened to a larger institution like Emory," student Cassie Hendrix said.
Emory said it is now reviewing procedures to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Cox Media Group