By Diego Olivares
Financial hardships could cause stressed college students to easily fall victim to scams set up to take their money.
Going to college can take a lot out of a student’s wallet.
Many of them turn to working or asking their parents for some cash. The usual method of getting money is through school financial aid.
This includes applying for grants as well as loans. Students try to avoid loans as it means repayment.
Depending on the student’s qualifications, he or she could take either a loan or a grant.
If a student was to end up with a loan, it could increase a student’s stress. Who would want to owe money?
Adding to the stress is the fact that students have to pay more than just the loan.
Loans build interest, which means that a student would have to pay extra money.
The interest builds as the time goes on, adding more stress on a student.
This would result in them wanting to pay off the loan any way possible. In this state of mind, a student comes across ads on social media sites or emails sent to them.
These ads are for “student loan forgiveness programs.”
The ads promises to help studentsto repay those debts.
It sounds as though a student may relax? upon learning this, however once a student applies, the site requires a fee.
This sounds rather odd for a site that’s offering to aid a student with financial issues.
That is because this is not a student aid forgiveness site.
It’s really a scam set up by cash- starved students.
Now let’s be honest, students could easily fall victim to these scams.
Due to their desperation from their financial troubles.
I first became aware of this because of my own financial aid troubles. ?Back in 2009?, I attended a trade career school.
In order to become a student of the trade school, I had to apply for school loans.
Sadly, the career I’d studied for didn’t take off and I was stuck with loans, having no clue how to repay them.
Eventually, the debt grew due to building interest, causing me to go further into debt.
The feeling of owing a lot of money got a bit stressful for me.
I was able to get by using deferment when I enrolled in East Los Angeles College, studying for another career; ironic.
About a few months ago, I came across an ad to offering financial aid forgiveness.
Foolishly, without really looking into it, I nearly signed up for it.
I thought it was part of the Obama Student Loan Forgiveness program.
B?ut again, I should have really looked into it.
What stopped me from joining the program was the realization that I would have had to pay a fee.
?Plus, I heard through close friends and family about the scams they experienced.
While I’m thankful that I didn’t fall victim to this scam, many other college students do.
Now this doesn’t mean that all student debt forgiveness programs are scams.
There are programs that are legitimate, but it’s really about finding the real ones.
According to the site, getoutofdebt.org, programs like the Public School Loan Forgiveness Program is one that cares.
According to the FAFSA Website, there are ways to get real student loan forgiveness and ways to identify a loan scam.
Students could apply for true loan forgiveness programs.
According to the website BBB. org (Better Business Bureau .org).
A student can spot a scam by noticing the following: students should never pay upfront, because scammers will take the money and run.
Another is if the program wants a student to give a third party power of attorney.
This could give the scammers control over the loan, which is a good thing of course.
B?ut when we’re feeling desperate, we don’t think clearly, and it’s that kind of thinking that allows scammers to prey on unsuspecting students.
There are ways to get loan forgiveness, but research must be done carefully.