Student Loan Scammers

Reports have been made that scammers have taken to student loans in light of the COVID forbearance period ending at the end of January. On March 27th of 2020 the CARES Act was passed to pause federal student loan payments through Sept. 20th of 2020 and temporarily set the federal student loan interest rate to 0%.

On August 6th of this year, the U.S Department of Education announced a final extension of the student loan payment pause which would be in effect through January 31st, 2022. The pause included a suspension of loan payments, a 0% interest rate applied to all federal loans, and for collections on defaulted loans to be stopped until January 31st of next year.

An uptick of calls are being noted as scammers attempt to reestablish payment plans for those currently covered by the pause. The conversation often proceeds with a confirmation of details to “confirm” the identity of the person you are. When actually the caller is attempting to gather vital information to be used in their malicious plan. If you find yourself answering a call like this, the best route to take is simply to hang up the phone. Hang up and call your loan service provider and ask for the call log to be examined for your account. This will easily determine whether the call was in fact from a valid source.

As of now tens of millions of people will be required to resume monthly payments on student loans in February. Talks of further deferment have proven unproductive as President Biden has not indicated any intention of extending relief any longer.