What’s worse than restarting your student loan payments? If a scammer offers help and you end up losing more of your money. Get ready for an onslaught of scam attempts.
The long-anticipated restart of federal student loan payments has begun. Scammers are moving in to try to take advantage of people via calls, emails, text message and social media.
Student loan forgiveness scams are emerging as one of the top schemes this fall, according to the Cybercrime Support Network. They are already seeing people being targeted by robocalls with offers of instant relief or reduced loan payments, in exchange for an upfront fee.
Ally Armeson is the executive director of the Cybercrime Support Network.
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“Sometimes the form of the scam will look like them impersonating your loan servicer or the Department of Education,” Armeson explained. “And they're going to say, ‘hey, we need to update your information to make sure your payments are processed properly’ -- so they're going to ask you for your social security number. They're going to ask you for your FSA ID. Just remember, you never give that information out.”
Here’s how to protect yourself:
Make sure you know who your loan servicer is and only deal with them directly. A lot of borrowers had their loan servicer changed during the pandemic and scammers will try to take advantage of that uncertainty.
Never pay for help managing your student loans. If someone tried to charge you up front, that’s your first clue that it’s a scam.
Beware of any promises of quick loan forgiveness.
If you don’t know who is servicing your loan, you can find out by logging into studentaid.gov with the same username and password you used to fill out your financial aid form.
