Folks, scammers exist. We know this to be a fact. They are always looking for ways to take advantage of people. Got it. But thanks to extremists in the GOP, who have hijacked the government and shut it down (and even managed to anger people in their own party), new scams have now popped up. Here's the latest one - forgiving your student loans! Sounds awesome, right? Yeah, if it sounds awesome, then it's too good to be true.
Again, it comes as no surprise that scammers are trying to take full advantage of people who are struggling or unable to pay off their student loans. They have seized upon an opportunity with the government shutdown.
Jobs With Justice noticed that a fake Sallie Mae account popped up a few days ago. A Sallie Mae instagram was created, claiming that the first 150,000 people to sign up would have their loans forgiven. This is a scam. Plain and simple.
As Chris Hicks wrote, "this is a fake account."
For the full story, read Chris Hicks' coverage here.
I urge all of you to disseminate this information, so that people aren't duped.
*UPDATE*
A few minutes ago, Sallie Mae sent out the following tweet: https://twitter.com/SallieMae/status/385820129910849536
Many of us have been tweeting the following to Sallie Mae's twitter handle:
.@SallieMae, please tell ppl that this loan forgiveness is a scam! It's your responsibility to your borrowers. http://t.co/iwA1JAPbcU
I also encourage all of you to send tweets and call the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and report this scam.
A non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of all student loan debt through activism, education, and legislation; because student loan debt is dangerous to the US economy and to the health and well-being of individual Americans and their families. CRYN JOHANNSEN, Founder & Executive Director
4 comments:
Five executives of Sallie Mae should be crushed under the treads of a tank for not catching the scam immediately.
Choose them at random.
Another myth is that the CFPB has any authority over this. If it is non-federal and non-federally-guaranteed loans, yes, the CFPB has specific consumer responsibilities, inherited from the FTC. But CFPB and FR have no oversight authority over other federal agencies. You may also recall that almost 10 years ago, when Sallie Mae was refusing to let borrowers consolidate to other lenders, arguably in violation of the Higher Education Act and its regulations, the courts decided that no one has the authority to enforce the Higher Education Act other than DOE. CFPB has tried to get around this by claiming that it can regulate repayment loan servicers and private collection agencies that have multiple clients, including DOE. The chances are that CFPB will, again inheriting responsibilities from the FTC, succeed in regulating servicers and collection agencies, EXCEPT any business they have with federal student loans.
Speaking of the government shutdown, there are hundreds of thousands of us who are furloughed right now who rely on our federal salaries to pay our thousands of dollars in monthly student loan payments.
The very government that tied our hands by giving all legal rights to the banks in the case of student loans has also made it impossible for us to meet our monthly obligations by shutting itself down because a few people can't play nicely in the sandbox.
Cryn, I very much appreciate your point of view but this can hardly be blamed on just one political party. It is everyone's fault. I hate John Boehner (and friends) as much as the next person with a brain but you can't argue the fact that Obama has said without shame that he WILL NOT negotiate.
I just spoke to a woman whose husband was an IT contractor for the government and thanks to the shutdown, he didn't just get furloughed, he was LAID OFF. Do you think John Boehner, Barack Obama or Harry Reid care about him? I'm going to say no... at least not any more than they could use his story to further their respective political agendas.
I feel like a very ugly social plague has spread in this country and it pains me to see my beloved nation turn into something that is no longer recognizable as the promising, bright, moral place that we once were. Remember sitting in school as a child reading your Weekly Reader and wondering what great things the future would hold? What happened to us?
It's time we all stopped blindly following political parties and began getting along as a nation. Our enemies need not do anything more than watch us destroy ourselves from the inside.
That is absolutely right to talk more about that. The biggest problems appear when people do not know information about what can happen to them. I am sure that if the government pays attention not only for how to punish the guilty when it is already happened to society but inform people for do not let such situations happen it will be best solution. Talk about that especially to young people, to students, let them learn about it, tell them, let them write essays about that such as we do with the help of http://essaywritinghere.com/ and let them share to each other. Be safe!
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