I have written often about phony student loan debt relief companies and with good reason.  More than forty-two million Americans have student loans with an outstanding balance of more than 1.4 trillion dollars so it is no surprise that scammers are focusing their attention on these students and former students through scams that falsely promise to provide debt relief.   Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that President Biden’s program for student loan forgiveness was unconstitutional.  Interest on student loans began accruing again on September 1st and repayments are scheduled to resume in October, leaving many people scrambling as to what to do about their student loans.

As you can imagine many people with large student loans are susceptible to scammers promising to reduce or eliminate student loan debt.  Scammers promoting phony loan forgiveness services are targeting people through robocalls, emails and text messages. The old adage still is true.  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.  Many of these student loan debt relief scammers promise quick loan forgiveness, which is unrealistic.  In addition, you should never pay any upfront fees for student loan debt relief assistance.  Those fees are illegal and are a sure indication that you are being scammed.

TIPS

For information you can trust about federal student loan repayment option, go to https://studentaid.gov/repay .  There you can learn about loan deferments, forbearance, repayment and loan forgiveness programs and there is never an application fee.  If you owe private student loans, contact your loan servicer directly.  You can also look into student loan refinancing rather than consolidating the loans.  Refinancing student loans can result in a lower interest rate.

Also, remember my motto, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.”  Don’t trust scammers merely because they use names that sound like they are affiliated with the government.  You also should never share your FSA ID with anyone.

Here also is a link to an FTC video that explains student loan scams and what you can do to protect yourself.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TjSI4Q6ztQ

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and type in your email address on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”