Unfortunately, scammers didn’t wait long to start taking advantage of this announcement, luring stressed-out borrowers into giving up their personal information. He told me that I had to call back TODAY (creating a sense of urgency, thus allowing no time for critical thinking). Please beware of these. Check the official Department of Education website for legitimate updates!" —u/some-astronaut-6907 Not 10 mins later, I get an email from FSFA telling me my student ID has been locked. I’m amazed at how fast these scammers have figured out a way to bilk people on this loan forgiveness." —u/level_amphibian_6249 I got a letter in the mail after I got on my FSA account wanting more info on the Biden forgiveness plan. The letter seemed legit. It had my exact total of student loans and said I need to finish some stuff before the deadline for Biden’s plan and blah blah blah. I called the number, talked for two hours (but my god, if my student loans can be reduced, I’ll talk for 10 hours straight). I’ll do it while listening to the worst ‘on hold’ music. What I’m saying is, please be nice to me. I was desperate and let my guard down and now I’m freaking out. After hanging up, I did a little Google and my heart sank when my intuition was proven right. Scammed. And I gave them my social security number, and my account and routing number on my bank account. I already called my bank and I have a hold and am getting a new account so that’s solved. But what do I do about the social?" —u/illdiefortrashtv “Freeze your credit (all three bureaus) ASAP. It’s free and you can easily lift it when you need to use it yourself.” —u/nicolesy Well, around 6:20 p.m., I received a callback and it sounded all official. They talked about the Department of Education a lot and just needed access to my FSA information and my social. I legitimately thought I was talking to a government official who dealt with this, so I gave them my information. Then, he transferred me to another guy after processing this information and told me ‘what they could do for me.’ They essentially could give me fewer monthly payments on a smaller amount of my student loan debt. I started realizing that something was off when I asked what their company name was since they weren’t with the Department of Education. He attempted to explain to me what Doc Help Needs is and what they do. But since I got bad vibes, I told him I’d think about it and give him a call back if I’m interested." —u/hanzbananz77 The company (I don’t know the name) told them that they just had to make four payments of $200, then it would only be $10/month for the remainder. I tried interrupting to ask them why they needed to make payments when everything is still deferred until the beginning of the year and they just told me to stop talking. I had this uneasy feeling, so much so that later tonight I woke up them to ask them to talk about it so we could at least contact the bank or set an alarm for in the morning to call their actual student loan borrower service, and they told me that it was a ‘.org company and that there are certain requirements for people to register with that so it’s legit’ and that ’they didn’t want to talk about it in the middle of the night.’ I tried talking to them about it this morning and they again said it was legit and the people knew their FSA ID and social security number. I don’t know what to do." —u/sapphicsourdough
[Update] They reset my password because I got tricked into thinking they’re sending me a text verification code and had to confirm with them but in fact that code is for resetting my password on studentaid.gov! Be very wary! They asked me for all kinds of personal information, including my driver’s license number and two references. I was then told I was forgiven but have about $2000+ to pay off right now. And when I said I’m not comfortable paying right now and to send me the invoice, they said no problem and continued asking more questions. When they asked to confirm my social security number, I said I’m not comfortable giving that over the phone. They insisted and even gave me my last four digits and asked that I confirm that whole number. These people are spineless low lives. When I have time, I plan to bombard them with phone calls!!" —u/nem0z0
While on the phone with my loan servicer today, I received (and ignored) another phone call from the number (855) 728-2393. It went to voicemail and they left the following message: ‘Hey, this is Liz with Student Support. My number is 800-XXX-XXXX. I’m just giving you a call in regards to your student loans. I do have a pre-qualified here for the updated forgiveness program and possibly even discharge. It’s just imperative that we go over the details as soon as possible just because it does look like your status will expire soon, but I will keep you on pending status for now, so I do hope to hear from you soon and have a great day.’ Since NOBODY has details about the status for forgiveness, and I was on the phone with my actual loan servicer at the time, I’m 100% sure this is a scam. Beware!" —u/wishforever
The original voicemail was from ‘Jade’ with ‘Student Support.’ Red flag #2 was calling from one number and then giving a separate return number. Red flag #3 was when I called back the first number, it said I needed to call the number in the voicemail to talk to my ‘account specialist.’ Red Flag #4 was when I called the number in the voicemail and they transferred me to a man who was definitely not ‘Jade’ and spoke extremely poor English. When he asked me if I had student loans, I said, ‘No, I paid them off,’ and he tried to explain that was an error. I cut him off and told him, ‘No, I’m pretty sure this is just a scam.’ Red flag #5 was when he immediately hung up on me when I said the word ‘scam.’ Don’t fall for it!" —u/tweetspie Freezing your credit is another great free way to keep scammers from setting up new accounts in your name.
