Whether you love or hate the idea of Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, be aware of incoming student loan forgiveness themed scams. Scammers are already starting to theme phishing and phone/text scams to this topic.
Plans released by the government for the forgiveness program have been vague, with borrowers instructed to sign up for email alerts, and that enrollment will be available in early October.
This has left some borrowers, with repayments set to continue in January, in a panic.
Scammers love uncertainty and confusion!
What kinds of scams should you be watching out for?
- If you are searching for “student loan forgiveness” via Google or other search engines, you might see fake ads. According to a July report from TTP (Tech Transparency Project) up to 12 percent of these ads are fake. The only site you should go to for information about the forgiveness program is http://studentaid.gov/debtrelief or other official US Dept. of Education sites.
- Phishing messages themed to student loan forgiveness may start appearing in your inbox, if they aren’t already. Borrowers were told to wait for an email notification when they need to sign up for the program, so this leaves them vulnerable to these phishing emails.
Here’s an example phishing email spotted by Trend Micro:
The above email survey is fake, designed to obtain personal information and/or money. Note the grammatical errors, informal language, and no…
