NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WWLP) – On Friday, The Biden Administration announced it will use existing student loan forgiveness programs to cancel another round of student debt, and if you’re hearing a lot about federal student loan forgiveness in the news, you’re not alone because schemers are too.
This decision from Biden’s administration is great news to hundreds of thousands of people. The problem is that many of these borrowers are now falling for popular schemes.
The Federal Trade Commission is warning borrowers that you might get a call from someone saying they’re affiliated with Federal Student Aid or the Department of Education. They’ll say they are following up on your eligibility for a new loan forgiveness program, and might even know things about your loan, like the balance or your account number.
They will try to rush you into acting by saying the program is available for a limited time. But this is all a scheme.
22News spoke to local scheme expert Steve Weisman about what you need to know to spot schemes like this, “They want some form of an upfront fee, and that’s the easiest way to know that it’s a scheme. Because it’s illegal for companies to charge you before they help you in any kind of debt reduction.”
Weisman also tells 22News that if you get a phone call, text message, or email asking for any information you can’t trust it, even if it has a government caller ID because there are simple ways schemers can change how their contact appears.
The FTC has already sent more than $4.1 million in refunds to borrowers who lost money to schemers.