Let’s say your phone rings, and the caller tells you about the Biden Student Loan Relief program, which can help lower your monthly payments or even cancel your student loan debt. You just need to answer a few questions first.
Sounds great, right? There’s only one problem: the “Biden Student Loan Relief” program doesn’t exist.
That’s the story of dozens of borrowers who’ve been taking their experiences with these scammy calls to online forums, like Reddit, in hopes of getting useful advice.
Student loan debt relief scams aren’t new. In fact, consumer advocates say they were actually declining thanks to a 2017 operation launched by the Federal Trade Commission, which brought actions on 36 companies that had collected over $95 million in illegal fees.
So, why are they rising again?
Bonnie Latreille, director of research and advocacy at the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), says that the scammers’ business model is designed to prey upon financial vulnerability.
“If you target people who are desperate for help, they’ll do anything, including giving you all of their information,” Latreille says. “With the pandemic, there’s been unprecedented unemployment, people are struggling. So, scammers see it as an opportunity to jump,” she adds.
Plus, all the current talk about student debt
