Beware of Financial Aid scams
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning last week notifying students that suspicious emails claiming to be from the “Financial Department” at their respective institutions are advertising how to receive the economic stimulus check.
The phishing email contains a link to a message about the check and asks students to enter their login information for the school, potentially exposing sensitive material to scammers.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has also identified a scam targeting students in which callers are reaching out to student loan borrowers claiming to represent a loan servicer, in this case Navient. The scam is telling borrowers that as part of a lawsuit settlement, their student loan debt is either partially or completely forgiven, but first they must provide their personal information and pay a fee to transfer the debt from the loan provider to the “the Department of Education” or another official-sounding organization.
Federal Student Aid (FSA) has a resource list available for students to help them avoid financial aid and loan-related scams. Phishing scams can be reported to the FTC or the BBB scam tracker.
Fill out your legitimate 2020-2021 FAFSA application at studentaid.gov. Call the Student Services Office at (920) 459-6633 with questions. The UW-Green Bay school code is 003899.
