There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding student loan forgiveness — and scammers are taking advantage of the confusion. Hackers are preying on borrowers waiting for debt relief to trick them into coughing up personal data or paying money for fake assistance. You might assume you’ll be able to identify scams, particularly if you’re a recent college graduate accustomed to navigating the dangerous potholes of digital scams. However, Gen Zers and millennials report falling victim to online schemes at a significantly higher rate than Baby Boomers, according to the National Cybersecurity Alliance. Plus, bad actors are getting increasingly sophisticated in their student loan scheming, and it’s working. In the past two years, student loan borrowers were scammed out of $10 million in a scheme promising help with debt consolidation, lowering monthly payments and getting loan forgiveness, the Federal Trade Commission reported. “If a scammer can get into a borrower’s account, they have been known to change the contact information and login credentials. I have seen scammers set up payments from the borrower’s bank account as monthly payments or service charges,” said Elaine Rubin, a student loan policy expert and CNET Money Expert Review Board member. With a new incoming administration and so much still unclear about the fate of student loan programs, it’s creating a perfect storm for student loan scammers. If you have student loans, here’s how to spot debt relief scams right away, and what to do if you suspect you were scammed. If you get a phone call about debt relief, it’s probably a scam Though it’s certainly possible to receive a call from the federal government about your student loan program, getting one about student loan forgiveness is pretty rare. If the Department of Education were to call you, the information would be general, such as announcing a forbearance period for anyone in the SAVE repayment plan, said Rubin. If the call uses your name, it’s likely not a legitimate call. Your loan servicer might also call you, and the phone number may look legitimate. But if a caller asks you to take action for debt relief, to pay them money, or to share your personal or financial data, odds are it’s a scam. To be safe, you can hang up and call your servicer back on its official phone line. Pro tip Email scams are harder to spot, but fraudsters usually leave clues Deciphering scam emails can be tricky, particularly if you check your email quickly on your phone. “Most cases involving broad student loan forgiveness will come from a .gov email address,” said Mark Kantrowitz, financial aid expert and CNET Money Expert Review Board member. However, fraudsters have caught on and taken steps to make their emails look more legitimate, using “official” letterhead and links to the Department of Education’s official site. You’ll need to be discerning to weed out fraudulent emails. “Scammers can forge the return address of an official email with a slight misspell
Dom. Gen 19th, 2025
