You and your teen are hunting for college scholarships. Unfortunately, there are scam artists hunting for you. They鈥檒l seek to ensnare you with promises, tempt you with devious emails, sly letters, forked-tongued phone calls, and websites advertising their bogus businesses. They use the desire for financial aid and college funds to manipulate, every year, thousands of parents out of . Don鈥檛 be fooled. Here are 13 red flags that can alert you to fraudulent scholarship scams.
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Asking for advance fees
A is to guarantee your student a scholarship for an 鈥渁dvance fee鈥� of usually $10 to $25. If they can鈥檛 get your child a scholarship, they promise to return your money. Don鈥檛 fall for this trap. Zero funds will be found for your teen, and your return fee will be impossible to claim.
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Requesting access to your funds
This scam asks for your personal info — credit card, checking account, social security number — either in a phone conversation or via the website. Never provide this. They might say they want it to 鈥渃onfirm your eligibility鈥� or to 鈥渉old this scholarship,鈥� but what they really want is to debit your account, once, monthly, or even weekly.
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Claims of exclusive info
The con artist might say, 鈥淲e have a list of scholarships you can鈥檛 get anywhere else,鈥� for which he鈥檒l ask you to pay an 鈥渁ccess鈥� fee. Untrue. There are no secret, exclusive databases. Scholarship information is available for free at numerous sites, like Scholarships.com, Fastweb.com, and . Better yet, check your counselor’s office and the local library for information about local scholarships, which will have fewer applicants and are less likely to be an online scam.
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Offers to fill out applications, for a fee
A smooth operator might tell you, 鈥淲e do all the work; we鈥檒l locate scholarships for your student and fill out the paperwork. We just need a 鈥榩rocessing fee.鈥欌�� This is totally ridiculous. They can鈥檛, and won鈥檛, write usable scholarship essays for you or acquire meaningful letters of recommendation. They鈥檒l cash your “processing fee” and send you some garbage they googled, plagiarized, or use for all their victims.
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Sham congratulations
Fraudsters might say, 鈥淵ou鈥檝e already won!鈥� or 鈥淵ou鈥檙e a finalist!鈥� or 鈥淵ou鈥檝e been selected!鈥� They鈥檒l ask you for a 鈥渄isbursement鈥�, 鈥渞edemption鈥�, or 鈥渁dministrative鈥� fee so they can deliver scholarship prize money from a contest your teen never entered. Sometimes they鈥檒l even send you a big check, saying it can only be redeemed after you pay the required price to release the funds. Put mail like this in the trash.
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Official-sounding names
Scam operations often have , scholarship organizations, and nonprofit education foundations, even using words like 鈥淣ational鈥�, 鈥淔ederal鈥�, and 鈥淎dministration.鈥� Plus, they might have a Washington, DC address. Don鈥檛 be duped. Google any group’s name to certify its legitimacy before you even talk to them — especially if they reached out to you first.
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Pseudo-scholarships
This ruse displays what appears to be an actual scholarship, but the . Be cautious! Rarely is every student eligible for a legitimate scholarship, without any restrictions. (But a scammer would love an application fee from everyone.) Either avoid this entirely or carefully investigate its history. Does it display evidence of past winners? As a general rule, avoid scholarships where there鈥檚 an 鈥渁pplication fee鈥� unless you鈥檝e carefully checked it out.
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Offer of a low-interest education loan
This enticing snare offers your cash-strapped family a very low interest rate loan for education, but it requires you to pay a fee before you can receive it. Suggestion: take their offer to your bank manager and get their opinion; they鈥檒l almost certainly tell you it’s a scam.
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Free seminars
Perhaps you鈥檒l be invited to attend a free event that promises useful scholarship information. Upon arrival, if you’re greeted by aggressive sales reps pressuring you with hyperbolic pitches for overpriced services, loans, and student resume formatting, then there’s no need to be polite. Leave straight away, there’s nothing of value for you there.
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Pat phrases that sound too good to be true
Scammers use verbal bait in their advertisements. You’ll see statements like, 鈥淓verybody is eligible for this scholarship鈥� and 鈥淭here are billions of dollars in scholarship funds unclaimed every year.” Wrong + wrong. The truth is, restrictions apply with every scholarship, and very few scholarships go unclaimed.
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Pressure to respond quickly
Scholarship fraudsters often pressure you to respond immediately (or unreasonably quickly) by employing time-sensitive malarkey like 鈥淔irst come, first served,鈥� 鈥淔or lucky applicants who apply first,鈥� and 鈥淎ct now to claim recent additions to our file.鈥� Don鈥檛 rush into this trap.
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No legitimate contact info
Reputable scholarships provide a telephone number and a business address. Frauds do not, because they don鈥檛 want to be traced. Beware of operations using a PO box or a residential address, . Hang up on people who won鈥檛 give you their phone number because they insist that they鈥檒l call you. Don鈥檛 call, or return 鈥渙ne-ring鈥� phone calls that have a 900 area code or any other unknown number (); these might be long recordings that charge you several dollars per minute.
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Government endorsements
The U.S. government, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Better Business Bureau do not endorse private businesses. If the scholarship service says they鈥檙e endorsed by these entities, they鈥檙e lying.
Think you’ve come across one of these scams? Here’s what to do.
Experts are available to help if you believe you鈥檙e getting hassled or ripped off by a scam. You can contact your 黄色app鈥檚 guidance counselor, a financial aid officer at your teen’s future college, the , the , the , the , or the . You’re one of the lucky ones who spotted a red flag — report these con artists and save another family from getting tricked.
