RICHMOND, Va. -- Recent college graduates beware. Criminals are looking to take advantage of young adults with thousands of dollars in college debt and they are using a very tempting offer.
Scam artists call and email recent college graduates and promise to lessen or erase their college debt.
Experts with the Better Business Bureau said when students set up a payment plan through these phone calls or emails, scammers take the money and disappear or require an outrageous interest rate; requiring people to pay twice as much as they originally owed.
Tom Gallagher with the BBB said this scam has a very specific target.
"This could hit someone who is maybe 5 or 6 years out of school. Now they are having children and trying to get all this stuff squared away, feeling like they are going deeper and deeper in debt." Gallagher advised, " Just do not fall into the trap of thinking you can get out of it with somebody forgiving your student loan debt, because that will not happen."
The BBB said any loan forgiving and loan consolidating programs will come from your bank or the company that gave you the loan, not a third party.
