It’s an unfortunate aspect of life: there are people out there who prey on people who are in difficult life situations. Often these scam attempts revolve around money, and usually the targets are people who are significantly in debt. Mortgages, credit card debt, auto loans — all of these things have caused many people to believe that a voice on the other end of the phone actually represents a legitimate business that is trying to help them get out of debt.
Ultimately, that voice is not trying to help them. They just want to use the individual’s current fragile state to siphon some money off of them. Herein lies a new problem with the scamming world. The scammers have turned their attention to the $1.2 trillion elephant in the room: student loan debt.
We’ve talked about student loan debt before on this blog, but it bears repeating. This is a national problem that is only getting worse. Tuition, fees, living expenses, and other financial matters pertaining to college put graduates in a very tough position once the collection efforts begin. And the worst part is, student debt can’t be discharged through bankruptcy.
This is a major clue when it comes to scammers trying to use your student debt to get your money. If they say they can help get rid of your student debt in a fashion that seems too good to be true, then it probably is just that. Hopefully someday soon the rules will be changed regarding student debt.
Source: Forbes, “Debt Demons Discover Student Debt,” John Wasik, July 16, 2014