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The FBI has issued an alert yesterday, warning of potential fraud schemes that are targeting individuals who want to enroll in the Federal Student Aid program. Fraudsters may contact potential victims through phone, email, mail, text, or other online chat services.
Federal Student Aid is a debt relief program that was announced in August 2022 and opened for applications yesterday, the 18th of October. The aid helps student loan recipients manage their debt by removing between $10,000 and $20,000 from their credit. The application deadline is December 31, 2023, and those who qualify must earn less than $125,000 per year or $250,000 for joint filers.
The Perfect Chance to Attack
The program offers scammers the perfect chance to create phony websites that look exactly like the application form, send phishing emails or SMS messages about “benefit eligibility,” and use a variety of other social engineering methods to defraud people.
Cybercriminals and fraudsters may purport to offer entrance into the Federal Student Loan Forgiveness program, contacting potential victims via phone, email, mail, text, websites, or other online chat services. Cybercriminals and fraudsters use their schemes to receive payment for services they will not provide or collect victim information they can then use to facilitate a variety of other crimes.
According to Bleeping Computer, 45 million students benefit from loans in the United States, owing a total of 1.6 trillion dollars. The ‘real’ student aid program is totally free, so the students should pay attention to any request to pay for program enrollment or application processing.
Studentaid.gov – the website of the debt relief program
Moreover, in the first phase of the application, the real program does not require users to upload any personal or financial documents or log into any accounts.
The official emails for the next stage will come from one of these three addresses: noreply@studentaid.gov, noreply@debtrelief.studentaid.gov, or ed.gov@public.govdelivery.com and the U.S. government will not send any notices via phone call, SMS or emails (other than the previously mentioned).
The only official website where students can apply to the debt relief program is studentaid.gov.
The Federal Trade Commission also posted a consumer alert on its website warning about the potential fraud and a few tips on how to avoid this kind of scams.
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Madalina, a seasoned digital content creator at Heimdal®, blends her passion for cybersecurity with an 8-year background in PR & CSR consultancy. Skilled in making complex cyber topics accessible, she bridges the gap between cyber experts and the wider audience with finesse.
