Student Loan Debt Scam

It’s the time of year to apply for financial aid, so be smart about your identity.

Who Is It Targeting: College-aged young adults

What Is It: Student loan fraud

What Are They After: A woman in Georgia has been arrested for filing fraudulent student loan applications using stolen identities. She used identities that she stole from a patient database at her former job with a healthcare provider to garner the information she needed. She managed to receive about $200,000 of the $500,000 she’d attempted to steal before she was caught. Ironically, she was caught because she accidentally signed her own name to one of the applications, instead of the victim’s name.

How Can You Avoid It:

• In this case, there’s nothing the victims could have done differently that would have prevented this crime.
• Instead, it speaks to the need for all people to monitor their account statements and credit reports very carefully on a routine basis.
• Credit reports would show you if there is a debt or account in your name.

If you think you may be a victim of identity theft, contact the Identity Theft Resource Center for toll-free, no-cost assistance at (888) 400-5530. Find more information about current scams and alerts here. For full details of this scam check out this article from LendEDU.com.