Common Student Loan Scams & What To Do If You Have Been Scammed
Students are vulnerable to student loan scams; we’ve got the signs to keep an eye out for.
We’ve all been there. The email with the strange subject line, from an unknown address, stating something like “your long-lost relative has recently died and has left you $1000,000,000. Send your bank information so it can be transferred”.
Plus, several spelling errors to really tie the whole thing off.
However, not all scams, especially student loan scams, are so easily identified. Nowadays, with a lot of our lives digitalised, hackers and scammers are highly skilled and their scams harder to distinguish.
And students who are already at university or planning to, are at risk of student finance scams and other financial fraud. In fact, Natwest’s Student Living Index revealed that a third of students had been targeted by fraud. These included delivery service scams, bank scams, and social media account hacks, as well as false tax rebates.
We’ve got some of the scams you might come across, and what to do if you think you’ve been scammed — student loan scams and others, too.
In this guide:
Types of scams and student loan scams
It’s no surprise that, as technology advances, more people are becoming victims to scams. And students, unfortunately, make good targets for scammers.
1. Phishing
Phishing is a form of fraudulent scam via email, usually trying to get sensitive information from you. This can include bank account information, or passwords to access your accounts and data.
Phishing emails are quite common for student loan scams, too.
You might get an email from someone acting as the Student Loans Company (SLC), stating something along the lines of your application not being accurate or that you left out some information. Then you’ll be told to click a link that will help finish your application and then bam! You’ve been scammed.
It can be easy to spot these phishing student loans scams. Instead of addressing you by your name, the email will likely start with “Dear Student” or even your email address. It will probably be from an email address completely irrelevant to the company (and usually nonsense), and the email might have some questionable spelling, grammar and even formatting issues.
Basically, if it doesn’t look professional, it’s probably a scam. Always report it if you come across one.
2. Competition scams
Social media is everywhere, there’s literally no escaping it. So, of course brands are going to turn to social media platforms to market their brand, and hold competitions. We’ve probably all entered a few (legit) competitions on Instagram, where you like, follow and comment, and you’ll be entered into a giveaway, yada yada yada.
Tricksters, though, have turned to impersonating these brands, creating fake social profiles pretending to be them. They’ll reach out to you and say you won said giveaway but that they need some banking details from you first. Sigh. Scam.
Always check who is messaging you about a competition and check to see if it’s the official page or not. You should also note that brands should never be asking your payment details for competitions/giveaways.
Keep your wits about you. If you didn’t enter any competitions and yet have been messaged saying you’ve won… sorry, but you haven’t actually.
3. Job scams
Job scams? Give us a break.
Yes, it seems that anything could be a scam, and job adverts can be especially sneaky.
Students are prime targets for job scams.
How much maintenance loan you get is often not enough for students to pay rent, bills, socialise, and eat. So students might turn to part-time work and online jobs to earn some extra cash.
Scammers prey on this vulnerability and will lure candidates to apply to a job with “no experience needed” or the pay seems too good for the number of hours you’ll work.
It’s not clear what the motive is behind these job scams, but some might require you to ring a number, most typically a premium rate number that begins with 070, 084, 087, 09, or 118, hoping to get some money from that.
If the job sounds too good to be true, it most likely isn’t true.
Other tell-tale signs that the job isn’t what it seems, is if the address looks suspicious. Does it come up with some random, run-down street with no offices? Is the job for some super techy company but the address brings you to the middle of the ocean?
Look out for these signs before you go ahead and apply.
Consider yourself to be an introvert? We’ve got the best jobs for introverts to suit a more ‘behind the scenes’ person.
4. Free Wi-Fi
We all love a bit of free Wi-Fi. It’s what keeps us sane on the train home, during our lunch breaks, and even helps boredom during lectures (shame on you, put your phone away).
But, free Wi-Fi in public is a risky move, something we don’t think twice about when we’re trying to get internet to upload an Insta’ story. It’s a hunting ground for scammers.
Free public Wi-Fi is rarely secure, and you should always use it at your own risk. Scammers and hackers will use the unsecured connection and intercept your connection, allowing them to see/steal any sensitive information like bank details or important emails.
While using public Wi-Fi, don’t download anything or install any updates onto your device, and try to avoid checking sensitive things like your bank account and emails. Try not to shop online using public Wi-Fi, too, as hackers can steal your payment information.
What is smishing?
Smishing is similar to phishing, but instead of targeting your emails, the scammers target your phone via text/SMS.
Smishing is a popular method for student loan scams, where the scammer will pretend they’re from the SLC and supply you with a link that will, more often than not, prompt you to fill out your bank details.
The SLC (and other banks and companies) won’t request sensitive information from you via text, so if you get a text that’s asking this of you, it’s likely to be a student loan scam. If you get a message that you suspect to be a scam, don’t respond or click any links that they might have sent.
If you’re unsure whether it’s a legit text, contact the company directly from their official website to confirm and clarify the situation.
Find out more about student finance scams and what to look out for.
What to do if you have been scammed
If you fear that you’ve been scammed, or have received suspicious emails, texts, or calls, here’s what you need to do:
- Check out the government’s guide to identifying a scam
- If it’s a social media scam, report the account and let people know that the account isn’t legit
- Reset passwords and let your bank know that your financial information may be stolen
- For scams not relating to student loans, Citizens Advice have different ways for you to report a scam
- If you receive a suspicious message from the SLC, report it by email to report@phishing.gov.uk or call the dedicated hotline on 0300 100 0059
If you’ve overpaid your student loan, you might be entitled to a student loan refund.
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