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DON'T Get ScammedApr 30 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Scholarships can be a big help in financing your college education but before you start applying take some measures so you won't be scammed. Three years ago when my son was a Junior in high school we knew that for him to be able to afford to go to college he would need some financial aid. One of the possibilities that we started looking into to help him was scholarships. The first thing that we did was attend a financial aid meeting at the school. During the meeting the high school counselor proceeded to tell us that many parents of the Juniors and Seniors had received letters from a company offering to find scholarships for students for a fee. She had many inquiries about this source of scholarships for our students and wanted to warn us all. She said that all this company would do after we paid our fee would be to help us fill out the form and apply for federal aid. While it is not illegal for anyone to charge for filling out the federal aid form, applying for student federal aid for college is something that you can do yourself for FREE. NEVER LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO FILL OUT THE FEDERAL AID FORM THAN THROUGH THEM WITH A FEE ATTACHED. Thank Heavens Jennifer told us. After she did I got to thinking and doing some worrying too about how to tell if a scholarship offer might be a scam so I hopped on the Internet and did some research. I also talked to the high school counselor some more and this review contains what I learned. My research said that the companies and individuals looking to scam often pick high school students and the parents of first time college students as they are prime targets with no experience in how to recognize a possible scam situation. They know that the most cautious and careful of parents are likely to be panicking as how to pay for their child's expensive college education and will grab at any possible straw to help them pay for it. The Federal Trade Commission suggests looking for these signs as a red flag that a scholarship search offer might be a scam: 1. "This scholarship is guaranteed or your money back." 2. "You can't get this information anywhere else." 3. "May I have your credit card or bank account number to hold this scholarship for you?" 4. "We'll do all the work." 5. "This scholarship will cost some money." 6. "You've been selected by a ‘national foundation' to receive a scholarship, (for just a small handling fee we can send you the check) or "You're a finalist in a scholarship contest, (the handling fee will be...) And you never entered that scholarship contest. Be very wary of any scholarship offer that says "guaranteed" or "fee-based. THERE IS NO REASON TO EVER HAVE TO PAY TO FIND A SCHOLARSHIP. You can find the information yourself for free by looking at your library, financial aid office, from your counselor and there is a wealth of free information on the Internet. Be skeptical of any loan offer that asks for a fee in advance. These offers will often come in the form of a phone call or mail offer when your child is in their early years of high school. They will tell you that for an "advance fee" or a "good faith fee" that you can receive a guaranteed student loan at a low interest rate. They may also tell you that you must apply for the loan years in advance and pay the fee in advance. This is NOT true! Most legitimate student loans will require that you have actually been accepted to a college before they will even consider letting you apply for a loan. It is not illegal for a company to charge a fee for a loan but it is usually not asked for ahead of time. You should NEVER need to pay an advanced fee for a student loan. Check any scholarship offers out thoroughly before applying. Check to see if their address is a real address. If the address is a PO Box, a mail drop or a residential address be cautious. This does not necessarily mean that the scholarship offer is not legitimate but you can go a few steps further to check it out. Call the post office to try to get the street address of a PO box. If there is none then the PO Box is not registered to a business. The post office is required to give the street address of a business with a PO Box but not if it is registered to an individual. If the PO Box is registered to a business with a physical address in another state especially if it is in Nevada then be very cautious as it could be a scam. When it comes to the phone number you can check that out by calling information or doing a reverse phone number look up. If the phone number is registered to an individual or residence be very cautious. You can also check with the Better Business Bureau in the area that the business is located and see if they have had any complaints about the organization that is offering the scholarship. There are legitimate companies being run out of residences but most will still have registered with their secretary of state and most will have a telephone number listed under the business name. Naturally not every scholarship offer will be a scam, the majority probably won't be but it is always wise to know some of the red flags or signals that might tell you to be aware. It is sad that a person has to go to these lengths to check out an offer but you need to protect yourself. You can also apply the basic rules of, "if it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't" or "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is". I hope that some of these tips might help keep you and your children from being the victims of scholarship scams. I certainly want to thank our high school counselor and some Internet sites especially the fresch site (http://www.freschinfo.com/index.phtml) where I got some of this information for being out there to inform and warn my son and I how to hopefully avoid being scammed.  |
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