Student Loan Scams

Beware of scams! Borrowers have reported receiving phone calls, emails, letters, and texts offering them relief from their federal student loans or warning them that student loan forgiveness programs would end soon. Usually, the so-called student loan debt relief companies offering these types of services don’t offer any relief at all. Often they’re just fraudsters who are after your money. 

Tips to Avoid Scams

Tips to Identify Scams

• They require you to pay up-front or monthly fees for help.
• They promise immediate and total loan forgiveness or cancellation.
• They ask for your FSA ID username and password.
• They ask you to sign and submit a third-party authorization form or a power of attorney.
• They claim that their offer is limited and encourage you to act immediately.
• Their communications contain spelling and grammatical errors. 

View the FTC’s list of companies and people banned from debt relief.

 Listen to Real Scam Messages

If You Fell Victim to a Scam

• Contact your federal loan servicer to revoke any power of attorney or third-party authorization agreement that your servicer has on file. You should also make sure no unwanted actions were taken on your loans.
• Contact your bank or credit card company, and request that payments to the company be stopped.
• File a complaint with the FTC.
• File a report of suspicious activity through our Feedback Center.

 Also, be sure to log in and change your account password on any sites that you shared with the company, this may include the password to your FSA ID. Do NOT share your new account password with anyone!