With the Federal Student Loan Program reprieve set to expire on August 31st, the Tech Transparency Project, which is a research arm of the Non-Profit Campaign for Accountability, reviewed top Google searches related to student debt, including “student loan forgiveness” and ”cancel student debt” and found that 29 out of 242, or 12 % of ads reviewed had scam characteristics.
Students are advised to be on the lookout for:
- Services which seek to charge borrowers before providing a service.
- Sites seeking to collect personal data, such as pay stubs and tax forms. Google policy does not allow advertisers to collect personal data for unclear purposes.
- Bait-and-switch attempts, or click through ads purporting to be about student loans but ultimately offering other services.
- Offers that sound too good to be true, such as “Your loan is flagged for forgiveness pending verification”
- A sense of urgency, such as “Act immediately to qualify . . . “
Please be reminded to exercise caution when visiting untrusted sites. To prevent malware installation and the results of infection, such as identity theft, do not supply personal information, perform downloads, click on embedded links or web pop-ups.
Additionally, you can confirm that you’re working with a U.S. Department of Education lender or servicer partner, or find out what to do if you’ve been the victim of a student debt related scam by visiting the following Federal Student Aid web page.
For more information, please see:
Bloomberg, Scams Lurk in Ads for Google Searches on Student Debt Relief
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