If you’re looking for scholarships, grants or student loans, we should be aware! Scammers are in search of vulnerable students. Unfortunately, the more they know us, the worse our chance to protect ourselves. Here are a few college loans and grants, that can be associated with common scams and we should avoid becoming a hapless victim. Scams victims lost 100 million a year to scammers posing as legitimate organizations for granting services that correspond to scholarships and other purportedly government aids.

Scholarship

Any scholarship that promises impressive results and financial helps should raise a huge red flag. Even if any associated tax seems nominal compared to the overall yield potential, do not be fooled. A common scam requires students to pay between five and fifty dollars. Applicants will be asked to complete the application form and send the check. But, the scholarship never materializes and eventually the website disappears. Even for poor student, 35 dollars may seem like a small loss. But for scam artists, however – they can receive up to ten thousands applications, which net them a huge amount of money.

Advance fee loan

It is another common type of scam. This is a game of bait and switch. In general, scammers could pose as lenders and they offer interesting student loan packages with incredibly low interest rate. But what’s the catch? Before sending the money, the lender may require us to send us the so-called “processing fee”. Fake lenders may also ask us to pay taxes on our loan early. Do not be fooled. If we send a check, it is unlikely that we will get something in return.

Prizes

Imagine this common scenario: You open your mailbox and one day find that you have won a scholarship prize worth a few thousands of dollars! You certainly do not remember participating in the contest, but you’re obviously very happy. As noted in the fine print, it is mentioned that disbursement fee is needed before you can make money. An uneasy feeling could start tp come over you. The fee is an important consideration, certainly a small amount of fee is not a big deal, right? But multiplied by thousands of unaware victims, it can add up to a huge amount of money for the scammers. Some insurance companies and brokerage firms could offer financial aid, but they are required to participate in “seminars”. Other scammers charged us for using scholarship search services and they don’t offer money-back guarantees. At best, you will be sent a list of scholarships classification – , but most likely they will take your money and run.

How to protect ourselves?

By now you have probably noticed some common patterns of scam attempts: If you are asked to pay fees, then it is probably a scam. Scholarships should be given by legitimate high-quality services. Scholarships are usually completely free and they are commonly available on the web for everyone to apply. Reputable providers never require any kind of fee to when we apply for a scholarship.