The FBI and Federal Trade Commission are warning people to be wary of scams cashing in on government efforts to provide student loan assistance.
Over the past few months, the White House has touted two different programs designed to help address the student loan crisis in the U.S., where about 45 million borrowers owe more than $1.6 trillion.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness plan is designed to offer relief to those who have worked in government or public service, while the recently announced Federal Student Loan Debt Relief plan provides those eligible with up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness.
But this week, both the FBI and FTC said scammers are trying to take advantage of interest in the programs both to steal personal data and financial information as well as to siphon off funds.
The FBI released an alert on Tuesday warning of fraudulent websites, e-mails, texts, or phone scams aiming to defraud people seeking federal student loan forgiveness.
“Cybercriminals and fraudsters may purport to offer entrance into the Federal Student Loan Forgiveness program, contacting potential victims via phone, email, mail, text, websites, or other online chat services,” the FBI said.
“[They] use their schemes to receive payment for services they will not provide or collect victim information they can then use to facilitate a variety of other crimes. Entrance into or assistance with any federal student aid program through the Department of Education or their trusted…
