Sometimes, you wonder how people get caught up in some scams. And then you realize, sometimes people get the flu and aren’t on top of their game. Or they’re in a hurry. Or things just change so much that it gets hard to keep up with what’s legitimate and what’s not.
Take the latest Biden administration effort to bring widespread student loan forgiveness to millions of borrowers.
Scammers love to jump on any chance to take advantage of consumers when something is new or confusing. And there have been all sorts of developments relating to student loan forgiveness. On Thursday, President Joe Biden tweeted that about 26 million people already applied for federal student loan forgiveness. The application went online at StudentAid.gov on Oct. 17, after some beta testing earlier.
But debt relief isn’t being processed as the courts deal with legal challenges to the program. Six GOP-led states earlier brought a lawsuit against the Biden administration to try to halt the sweeping forgiveness plan, charging that the administration overstepped its executive powers.
But the scammers? They’re not missing a step.
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission warned consumers about a potential uptick in robocalls relating to student loan debt relief. “Scammers might use the calls to pressure consumers to make a payment or provide private information,” according to the alert.
The Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker report system already has begun hearing from consumers who have received…
