Beware of Scholarship Scams ! – Common Scholarship Scams

Many scholarship-finding services will tell you that “millions of dollars in private scholarship money goes unused every year” and they can guarantee that you will get this money by using their service and most of time there is up front fee incur. BEWARE! It might be scholarship report scam trap. In general, if you have to pay money to get money, it’s probably a scam.

Every year thousand of students and parents are defrauded by scholarship scams. And many of them even unaware that they had dropped into the trap of scholarship report scam, the victims usually write off the money paid up front to the scams as thinking they just simply didn’t win the scholarship.

Let review some of common scholarship scams so that your will be alerted and precaution about the suspicious scholarship offers. According to the Federal Trade Commission’s Scholarship Scams, if you receive an offer that uses one of these tactics, be suspicious:

The scholarship is guarante or your money back Beware of scholarship-finding services that guarantee you will win a scholarship or your money will be refund. If it is a scam, you will find it extremely difficult to qualify for refund, because this refund guaranteed often have terms & condition attached. Get and review refund policies before you pay.

Ask for your credit card or bank account to hold the winning scholarship for you If you receive phone call saying that you have won a scholarship and they need your credit card or bank account in order to hold the winning scholarship for you. Never! Never give out any credit card or bank account without getting information or confirmation in writing first. It might be a set-up for an unauthorized withdrawal from your account.

A super low interest rate loan that need advance fee This scam will offer you an unusual low interest rate loan. But they will ask you to pay for a fee during the loan application submission. And when you pay for it, the promised loan never materializes. Be aware, real education loan usually deduce the fees from the disbursement check. It never required you to pay for a fee when you submit an application. If the loan is not issue by a bank or other recognize lender, it is probably a report scam. Check the offer with your local bank’s manager before you pay..

You can’t get this scholarship information from anywhere else There are many scholarship lists available for public. A real scholarship is normally announce to public. You can get this information easily from college and the recognized financial aid agencies. Start your own researching from those locations before you pay for somebody to do the work for you.

You won a scholarship prize! The scam will inform you that you have won a college scholarship worth. A few thousands of dollars but you will be ask to pay. A “redemption” fee or taxes before they can release your prize. If you receive this good news but you don’t remember entering any scholarship contest, be suspicious. Even If you have enter the contest, check and get the winning confirmation letter first before any payment being made. There are scams use the real scholarship contest to cheat for money. They know many people are enroll for the contest and by chance you are in the list.