SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ever since President Biden announced his student forgiveness plan in August, which would erase $10,000 of debt for low- and middle-income borrowers, student debt scams overall have been on the rise. According to the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) Scam Tracker, there was an increase in reports of student debt scams shortly after the announcement. Furthermore, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in 2020 there was a grand total of nearly 25,000 fraud reports on federal student loans, an 88% uptick from the year prior.
Digging a bit deeper, some types of older scams are decreasing in frequency—thanks to better enforcement, points out Mark Kantrowitz, a student loan expert and author of How to Appeal for More College Financial Aid. On the flip side, there’s been a spike in scams around—you guessed it—loan forgiveness programs.
Below are some common student loan scams, what to watch out for, and how to avoid falling victim to them, from myFICO.
For more loan and credit education, visit myFICO’s blog at https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/blog
Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Program Imposters
This scam is the newest — and most likely — the most prevalent one. Thieves are pretending to be from the new federal debt cancellation program. They’ll probably try to get a hold of you by way of an unsolicited phone call or via snail mail.
To get a hold of your banking and personal info, these imposters ask…
