There's a timely reminder posted at the website of the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov) warning consumers about scholarship and financial aid scams aimed at high school seniors and their parents. As upcoming grads get ready for college, students and parents both ramp up their efforts to find financial aid to pay for steep tuition and housing costs. Overwhelmed by the skyrocketing costs, they sometimes become easy victims of scholarship scammers.
College costs money and lots of it - a fact that many unscrupulous companies are exploiting to the detriment of students interested in a good education and the improved career prospects that come with it. A favorite venue for setting the hook seems to be free seminars, where a savvy sales pitch is delivered with the promise of a guaranteed scholarship in exchange for an upfront fee. According to the FTC, students and parents are often lulled into these agreements by a reassuring money-back guarantee, which in fact has so many loopholes that a refund is for all practical purposes impossible to receive. Other scholarship scammers tout "scholarship awards", but require a fee or even access to credit cards and checking accounts in order to verify a student's "eligibility" for the award.
Whatever the scam, students and parents should be aware of warning signs that a scholarship offer isn't legitimate. Any mention of a guarantee, for example, should raise a red flag immediately. Any scholarship offer or "award" that requires students or parents to surrender money, or even their credit card or banking information, is almost certainly fraudulent.
The FTC does acknowledge the existence of legitimate companies that match students with real scholarship opportunities for a fee, but here, too, consumers should take care to ask the right questions. Don't fall for overblown success stories. Instead, make a point of asking companies for local references citing real people you can talk to about the quality of service and results. Finally, always get any fee-for-service offer in writing.
The pressure of finding a way to pay for an expensive college education often causes students and parents to overlook one of the best sources for student aid: the Federal government! The Department of Education pays out roughly 80 billion dollars of student aid annually in the form of grants, work-study programs and loans. The opportunities available here are simply too good to overlook and they're guaranteed to be scam-free. For more free information, visit studentaid.ed.gov, the home of Federal Student Aid on the Web!
Matt Paolini works from home as a distance learner. Visit
University of Pheonix Online or
University of Pheonix Degrees for free distance learning info.
