Despite all of the stories to the contrary, there are probably numerous honest people selling used cars. The same can’t be said about people who claim to be able to help families, for a fee, increase the amount of college financial aid they will receive.

If you’d guess that such scammers bilk families out of $100 million a year or more, you would be correct.

Because college costs scare nearly all of us, and because many people do not realize that there is money available to help them send their children to college, these scammers have found it very easy to find and exploit their victims.

First, families receive a letter from an organization with a name designed to sound like it was founded to help the families of college-bound students.

The letter doesn’t look like typical junk mail. The logo often looks like that of an Ivy League college, and the letterhead and paper are generally on fairly high quality paper. Like the con men behind them, the promotional materials look credible.

The letters generally start by appealing to fearby talking about the high cost of college.

Once they have stated the problem…paying for college…they assure you they can provide the solution. They may offer to “teach you the secrets of financial aid”, “locate millions of dollars in unused scholarships”, or otherwise help you take advantage of their special expertise.

The letters are not always the same, but one element is. They invite you to come to a hotel function room or other reasonably large venue to learn more about financial aid and scholarships, at no cost. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? If you think so, think again.

The gathering, whatever it is called, is a well rehearsed sales pitch. The gist…you need money, we can help you get it. And, nowhere do you get the one piece of information you need most…everything of value these people can offer you is available elsewhere, for free.

The group pitch is followed by individual meetings during which families are pressured to immediately pay for the services offered. Many yield to the pressure, writing checks in excess of $1,000 for a worthless set of services.

Every year, a new set of potential victims come along. But, you and your family can avoid these masters-of-rip-off by turning to the people who really do have your best interests at heart…school counselors and college financial aid professionals.

Most important of all, never pay anyone for financial aid advice or services. Never.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 11:26 am and is filed under Student Loans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.