When it comes time to begin planning for college, financial aid is one of the biggest concerns that most students have. Whether it’s a matter of obtaining college grants and scholarships or taking out a student loan, the possibilities are endless. While there are many legitimate sources of financial aid, in the age of the internet, many students are finding that it’s just as easy to be scammed online. For students searching for online grants and online scholarships, sifting through the honest tuition assistance programs versus the fraudulent imitators can be a difficult task. Following these three simple rules students can go a long way to protecting themselves from online cons.
The first red flag that any prospective student should be on the lookout for is cost. Any program that requires an upfront payment is most likely not a legitimate source of tuition assistance. FAFSA will never charge you for their services or for any grant or college loans offered.
Grants and scholarships are awarded to the discretion of the student. They do not require that you provide any financial information about yourself. Never give your credit card information or bank account to any organization for any reason. There is no legitimate financial aid institution who will need this information. Many scams will insist that you’ve been awarded a scholarship or college grant and that in order to collect the information they will require your bank account information – this should ALWAYS be an alarming signal.
Ultimately the best way to protect yourself from financial aid scams is to do your research. Any institution or program that you may have doubts about you should research thoroughly. There’s a great deal of available resource sites about grants online to provide ample information about what programs are trustworthy. Checking with the Better Business Bureau or the Federal Student Aid websites is an excellent reference source.
Seeking financial aid can be a frustrating process but it’s never worth it to give into desperation and trust blindly in financial aid programs without checking them out in advance. Do plenty of research and guard your financial assets and you’ll have no problem finding legitimate financial aid for your advanced education.
March 20, 2010
Thank you. This was a hugh concern of mine being that there is no face to face meetings. “Thank you so very much!
March 21, 2010
i am grateful for all of the honest techies that are out there giving us valuable tips and info on how to avoid being scammed!!Being honest-isn’t always easy,especially when there are so many fraud freaks out there trolling for your info so they can exploit it in one way or another!BEWARE SCAMMERS CUZ GOD SEE’S ALL, even the stuff you try to hide!!TRUST ME HE DOES!
April 15, 2010
Very useful piece
April 27, 2010
Thank you so much for this information. It never occured to me that one could get scammed trying to get financial aid. I will be very careful to double check all of my contacts.
June 27, 2010
Thank you so much for this information. The internet has become a scarry place. It seems that one always has to be careful. There are so many people out there trying to steal your money.
June 27, 2010
People should always remember not to ever give your bank account, credit card, or other financial information over the internet. If you are trying to get a grant or scholarship for college you should not have to pay anything to do it.
July 17, 2010
It seems that no matter what you try to do these days, someone is out there trying to scam you. How do you protect yourself?
August 8, 2010
This is very good information. Having worked in the fraud department of a bank for many years, I can say that any time anyone asks for a bank account in which to deposit money, or a credit card number, beware.
August 8, 2010
I was almost the victim of this kind of scam. I was ready to give all of my information to someone who would have taken my college financial aid and walked off with. At the last minute I decided to check by calling the loan office and that is when I found out I was being scammed. You should not have to pay anything to get a college loan.
August 8, 2010
I have always found that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is not what it seems.
November 4, 2010
It seems that these days there are so many people out there that are just looking for someway to scam you for anything they can. I have learned to be wary of everyone and everything.
November 28, 2010
I was almost scammed and at the last minute, I decided to do some research and got out of it.
December 26, 2010
It is really sad that we need to be so careful about everything we do these days in order not to be scammed.
December 26, 2010
I have found that anything I do online is subject to the possibility of a scam. The best way to avoid problems is to be very careful to authenticate everything.
December 26, 2010
I have been working on applying for scholarships and grants for school. How can I insure that I won’t be scamed?
January 14, 2011
Hi Tom. It can be difficult determining what sources to trust and which ones not to. The best thing you can do is get all the information you can and always read the fine print!
February 27, 2011
Thank you for this wonderful piece of advice. These days there’s too many people preying on the gullible. This will definitely help people out.
March 6, 2011
I did a lot of online searching for financial aid and I ended up with a ton of emails saying I was approved for things I didn’t even apply for. I think its terrible that people will prey on students. We all have to be careful. This is really helpful, thanks.
April 14, 2011
Hey Kathy. That is a great question. Scholarship scams are unfortunate, but one way to be reassured is to read everything thoroughly. You should never have to send money to a scholarship company, nor should you ever have to supply them with access to bank accounts and so forth. We have a great scholarship resources on our financial aid page that you should check out.