CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Graduation season has wound down, but scammers preying on college grads shows no signs of losing steam.

What You Need To Know

  • Scammers threaten to take degrees away from college grads if they don’t pay outstanding bills to their alma mater

  • In some cases, recent grads get trapped with fake loan forgiveness scams

  • There are ways to protect yourself by knowing your loan agreements and when payments start

The Better Business Bureau says scammers are targeting former students by promising fake loan forgiveness and trapping them into thinking they have unpaid tuition.

One example of this scam involves student loan repayments. Scammers are taking advantage of the federal pause. And while some loan forgiveness programs or programs to lower payments may be real, some are not.

President and CEO of the BBB Tom Bartholomy says some fake creditors are promising to wipe student loan slate clean by filling out a simple application.

“You can’t take their bait. Especially, if at the end of all this, they’re telling you there’s a $500 application fee, but you’ve got $32,000 in student loans that we’re going to be forgiving for you, so what’s $500?” he said. “Then they’re getting your identity and your cash!”

Bartholomy added on the other hand the scammers threatening to take degrees disguise themselves as someone from the school’s registrar’s office.

“[They’ll say] there’s still an unpaid tuition bill from when you were a sophomore, and that this needs to be taken care of,” he said. “And, if you don’t, we’re going to ruin your credit as well as we’re going to have your degree revoked.”

He added a lot of the crooks get information like what college/university former students attended and when they graduated directly from their social media accounts.

In order to protect yourself from scams like this, know the terms of student loans. Also, keep in mind loan payments don’t start until six months after graduation in most cases.