Current and former college students have had so much uncertainty about student loans the past few years.
Now that loan payments are about to resume — after a 3 year pause — scammers are targeting them, claiming to offer help.
Jamie Booth, like so many college students these days, is so confused by the on-again off-again talk of student loan forgiveness.
"I heard that they were doing some forgiveness under President Biden and then they cut it," she said.
She is mostly correct.
Now she is getting flooded with emails about loan forgiveness programs, but she's skeptical.
"I usually just assume that they are scams," she said.
Warning sign of a loan relief scam
So, what's legitimate and what's not?
Financial attorney Leslie Tayne says any program promising to completely eliminate your student debt isn't real.
"Especially the federal student loan debt," she said. "Given the recent decision by the Supreme Court. Currently, there is no program that eliminates in total the student loan debt the way the program was designed."
She says scams come in the form of emails, texts and letters. And increasingly, through posts on social media.
"It might have an eagle on it, it might have a flag on it," Tayne said.
In some cases, Tayne says the scammers may already have some information about you.
"Just because somebody pulls you up and has part of your Social Security number, knows where you went to school, knows any personal information about you, that doesn't make it legitimate."
The best source of information on your federal student loans is StudentAid.gov where you can enroll in the government's new "Save Plan."
And if you're having difficulty paying, your first step should be to contact your loan servicer which you can do by connecting through StudentAid.gov.
Tayne says don't pay an outside company for help, because your loan servicer can help for free.
Jamie Booth's being very careful with all the suspicious offers she gets.
"It's pretty hard to assume that anything will actually end up doing something, if it is not through the presidency," she said.
So make sure you are paying your student loans, and not scammers.
That way, you don't waste your money.
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