Praise Report & MONEY Daily: College Scholarship Scams
Jerry Figueroa (jfiguero@Adobe.COM)
Mon, 30 Sep 1996 12:13:21 -0700 (PDT)
Praise Report
Last night in our local service the Lord (re?)-filled some of the older
folks in our congregation with the Holy Ghost and had 'em dancing in the
isles! Even more amazing was how a couple that was visiting for the first
time (that I'm aware of) was completely tourched with the Holy Ghost, and I
mean tourched, they we're all over the place! The Lord has been moving
mightly in our local church (Watsonville, CA) in the last couple of weeks,
the Lord is strengthening our church to go full force to the witness to the
unsaved in our towns! \o/
Below is an article that should be of interest to all students in regards
to Scholarship Scams (much more the reason to be able to provide
church-derived scholarships!).
God bless you, Bro. Jerry
---
MONEY Daily
Weekend, September 28-29, 1996
Watch out for college scholarship scams
Con artists are increasingly preying on students -- and their
parents -- who are desperate for education money, a federal
agency warns
by Tripp Reynolds
If you're looking for scholarship money this fall and come
across a deal that sounds too good to be true, be careful --
it probably is.
So says the Federal Trade Commission, which is taking a group
of alleged scamsters to court and warning parents and
students about this special back-to-school form of the
classic rip-off.
This is the time of year, of course, when million of high
schoolers, college students and parents are scrambling for
grant and loan money to defray the huge costs of education.
And FTC lawyers estimate that thousands of them will fall
victim to one or another kind of fraud, typically perpetrated
by outfits that promise to put them in touch with the money
they need.
"Scholarship fraud is a growth area," says Heather Hippsley,
a senior staff attorney at the FTC working on the agency's
newly launched Project ScholarScam. "The fraud artists take
advantage of the discrepancy between college costs and
families' finances."
Earlier this month, the agency put teeth into that claim by
filing suit in federal court against five companies that it
contends have defrauded over 20,000 college-bound students
for some $10 million.
The companies, often operating under official-sounding names
like Career Assistance Planning, Inc. and The National
Scholarship Program, would typically extract a payment in
return for access to scholarship money that was either
unavailable, out-of-date, not appropriate or non-existent.
Here's an example of how one such company allegedly operated.
According to the FTC, the firm, known either as Student
Assistance Services, Inc. or Student Financial Services,
Inc., sent more than one million postcards to high school and
college students advertising scholarships. When students
called an 800 number listed on the card, the agency says,
they were told that, for a $179 fee, they could find
"unclaimed" scholarship and grant funds -- and would get
their money back if they did not get aid.
Those who fell for the ploy got a list of publicly available
contests, loans and work-study programs which they could
apply to, the FTC says. When they tried to get their money
back, they were told that they had to provide a rejection
letter from <em>each</em> source on the list before they
qualified for a refund, it adds.
Other companies named by the FTC included The Higher
Education Scholarship Program, National Management
Scholarship Program, College Assistance Services, Inc., and
Student Aid Incorporated.
The FTC says the number of such operations has been growing
in recent years, as more and more students require financial
assistance to get through college. In 1973, only about 10
percent of college kids received aid, according to Sallie
Mae. That number is now pushing 50 percent.
How can you make sure that you and your family don't get
burned? Experts in and out of the government offer the
following advice:
First, says David Charlow, director of undergraduate
financial aid for Columbia University, don't sign up for any
scholarship-finding service that charges a fee. Almost all
legitimate scholarship listings can be had for free from a
library, high-school or college financial aid office. There
are also excellent compilations available in bookstores for
$20 or so. And there are websites, like FastWeb
(http://www.fastweb.com) and the Department of Education
(http://www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/FYE/index.html), that offer
free lists.
Don't give out your credit card or bank account number to
scholarship hawkers. That advice probably seems painfully
obvious, but Hippsley says many people were defrauded when
con artists told them they were in line for scholarship money
but needed to give a bank or charge card number to secure the
award.
Ignore advertisements that promise a money-back
guarantee.</strong> There is no way to guarantee a
scholarship, Hippsley says. You'll have to take your chances
like everyone else.
Ignore companies that claim to have exclusive scholarship
listings. See point number one above.
Beware of promises that the company will do all the work for
you. People applying for scholarships must fill out
application forms themselves. To submit a scholarship
application filled out by someone else is often illegal.
If you do get an offer that looks questionable, you can check
it with the Better Business Bureau or state Attorney
General's office. But remember,. just because a company
doesn't have any formal complaints filed against it doesn't
mean it's legit.
Finally, should you -- or someone you know -- become a victim
of such a fraud, you have several options. You can contact
the FTC via e-mail from its homepage (http://www.ftc.gov).
You can also call the National Fraud Information Center at
800-876-7060 or the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs at 202-
395-7900.
In addition, there is a plethora of state and local agencies
that can help, including the aforementioned Attorney General
and BBB as well as the local Chamber of Commerce and Bureau
of Consumer Protection.
For more Web-formation, visit:
http://www.ftc.gov
The Federal Trade Commission
http://www.bbb.org
The Better Business Bureau
http://www.finaid.org/
FinAid
http://www.fastweb.com/
FastWeb
http://www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/FYE/index.html
The Department of Education's Funding your education page
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\o/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerry Figueroa
ATM/Core Technologies
408 536-4322
jfiguero@adobe.com
Adobe Systems, Inc.
http://www.adobe.com
-/-