Student Loan Forgiveness Scams Are Everywhere. I Fell for One.

There's so much chatter about student loan forgiveness and so many changes in who might be handling your student loan, then stage has been set for scammers. I can tell you first hand, the scammers are out in full-force and they're very good.

Our situation began when my son's student loan started coming out of our checking account. The monthly cost was very high, so he began reaching out to negotiate a better monthly fee. The problem is, the company that used to handle his loan had changed. So, I thought I had found him a legitimate number to call the Dept. of Education - I was wrong. From that moment on, we were in the hands of a very nice woman who went out of her way, even staying past her shift, to make sure me and my son were royally screwed.

My son gave up all of his information. Social Security number, driver's license number, and everything else that you might give to a legitimate company. Because we pay his loan, they also needed our checking account information to be able to debit the bill.

My son came back with a plan that seemed almost too good to be true. But in the era of President Biden, it certainly didn't seem out of the norm. The plan was we would make four significant payments every month for four months, and then his loan would be placed on hiatus. As long as As remained in good status with the U.S. Government (pay his taxes, note get a felony conviction, etc.) the loan would be forgiven after 10 years.

I said to my wife, "Wow, Biden is really working around Congress to push this loan forgiveness program." But who are we to complain?

So the first payment came out of our bank account and it was listed as Academic Pro Solutions. That happened last month. This month, my son received an email from the Dept. of Education, that he was behind on his loan. How could that be? We're on THE path to loan forgiveness, right?

This is not at all far fetched, because people's loans are being forgiven left and right these days. We were just a part of the new work around.

The Dept. of Education made it clear to my son that no agreement had been made with them, and that he was the victim of a new scam.

Since then, my son has had to change his accounts and he enrolled in Life Lock. We're already Life Lock members, but we had to close out our checking account and open a new one (which is a major pain as you might expect).

Here are some tips on avoiding a student loan scam from ConsumerFinance.gov.

• Pressure you to pay up-front fees. Your student loan servicer will help you with your loans for free, so companies that request payment for debt relief services before providing help are breaking the law.
• Promise immediate student loan forgiveness or debt cancellation. Debt relief companies do not have the ability to negotiate with your creditors for a “special deal.”
• Guarantee they can remove legally owed debts from your credit report. Credit repair and debt settlement companies cannot remove debts that you legally owe.
• Demand that you sign a “third party authorization.” A “third party authorization” or a “power of attorney” are written agreements giving a person or company legal permission to talk directly to your student loan servicer and make decisions on your behalf.
• Ask for your Federal Student Aid information. Your FSA ID is a unique username and password to access information about your federal student loans. If you give that information away, you are giving a person or company the power to perform actions on your student loan on your behalf.
• Claim to be affiliated with the Department of Education or your student loan servicer. Scammers may try to appear legitimate by using official sounding names, logos, or websites. For federal student loans, if you want to consolidate your student loans or change repayment plans, the process should happen through one of the government’s official loan servicers or websites with “.gov” in their addresses.