[La-students] Financial Aid Scam (fwd)

[Erik Heil]

Ok, sorry for the off-topic message, but I thought it was rather 
important.  We all don't want scams, but then again, I'd presume that 
common sense should prevent some of these.  I'm not going to go through 
exactly what verification steps are necissary, because I don't want to 
generate any more unnecissary traffic to the list as a whole and people's 
indivisual inboxes.

-- 
Erik Heil <eheil at va3duk.serveftp.com>
Phone: (865) 673-0542


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 22:03:28 -0500
From: louana bigner <labc at charter.net>
Reply-To: Louisiana Students List <la-students at nfbnet.org>
To: la-students at nfbnet.org
Subject: [La-students] Financial Aid Scam

This is important.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Orozco" <jsorozco at austin.rr.com>
To: "NABS" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: <nabs at blindstudents.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 5:05 PM
Subject: [nabs-l] Financial Aid Scam


> Dear Students:
>
> Dear Students:
>
> Please see this very important message below that has been issued by the
> U.S. Department of Education.
>
> Department of Education Electronic Announcement
>
> Someone Impersonating an ED Official Is Offering Students Grants for a
> Processing Fee
>
> To:                   All Destination Points
>
> FROM:            Kay Jacks, General Manager
> FSA Application, School Eligibility and Delivery Services
>
> SUBJECT:     Financial Aid Fraud
>
> SUMMARY:   Someone impersonating a U.S. Department of Education official
is
> offering students grants for a processing fee.
>
> Dear Colleague:
>
> It was brought to our attention recently that someone claiming to be a
> representative of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is calling
students,
> offering
> them grants, and asking for their bank account numbers so a processing fee
> can be charged. Specifically, the caller tells the student he understands
> the
> student has federal student loans and offers to replace the loans with an
> $8,000 grant. The caller explains that a processing fee must be charged
and
> obtains
> the student's checking account information.
>
> We urge you to remind your students that there is no ED program to replace
> loans with grants and that there is no processing fee to obtain Title IV
> grants
> from ED. Furthermore, students should never provide their bank account or
> credit card information over the phone unless they initiated the call and
> trust
> the company they are calling.
>
> We recommend that you immediately e-mail or otherwise contact your current
> and incoming students to warn them about this scam. A student who is a
> victim
> of this or a similar scam should take the following steps:
>
> 1.      Immediately contact his or her bank, explain the situation, and
> request that the bank monitor or close the compromised account.
>
> 2.      Report the fraud to ED's Office of Inspector General hotline at
> 1-800-MIS-USED (1-800-647-8733) or
> oig.hotline at ed.gov.
> Special agents in the Office of Inspector General investigate fraud
> involving federal education dollars.
>
> 3.      Report the fraud to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC
has
> an online complaint form at
> www.ftc.gov/scholarshipscams
> and a hotline at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357; teletype for the hearing
> impaired: 1-866-653-4261). The FTC will investigate if the fraud is deemed
> widespread;
> therefore, it is important that every student contacted by the person or
> people in question lodge a complaint so the FTC has an accurate idea of
how
> many
> incidents have occurred.
>
> 4.      Notify the police about the incident. Impersonating a federal
> officer is a crime, as is identity theft.
>
> When filing complaints, the student should provide detailed information
> about the incident, including what was said, the name of the person who
> called,
> and from what number the call originated (if the student was able to
obtain
> it via Caller ID). Additionally, if unauthorized debits have already
> appeared
> against the student's bank account, the student should mention this fact
in
> his or her complaint. Records of such debits could be useful in locating
the
> wrongdoer.
>
> For information about identity theft prevention, you and your students may
> visit
> www.ed.gov/misused.
> For information about preventing financial aid scams, visit
> www.studentaid.ed.gov/lsa.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Kay Jacks
> General Manager
> FSA Application, School Eligibility and Delivery Services
>
> Posted July 14, 2004 on
> www.NASFAA.org,
> Web Site of the National Association of Student Financial Aid
> Administrators.  Please submit Web Site questions or comments to
> Web at NASFAA.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l
>

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