Have you received an email outlining debt reduction from the “Student-Loan Debt Department” following the release of the most recent debt relief plan from the White House? Let’s investigate why this email is a scam.
On April 8, the Biden administration put forward its intentions to propose new student debt relief programs for a staggering 30 million student borrowers. Despite the President sharing his intentions for the program, the strategy is still not final and is yet to be put into action.
So, it was a bit suspicious when a VERIFY journalist received an email declaring that she was eligible for a loan forgiveness “under the new 2024 guidelines.”
The email read -“Hello this is Mason Woods from the Student-Loan Debt Department. We attempted to reach you unsuccessfully. Your student loans have been marked as eligible for forgiveness under the new 2024 guidelines. Your case number is #15219, and your file will remain in my system for only one more day. Please contact your dedicated eligibility line by calling at: (844-681-3875) Thank you, and we hope to hear from you soon, Mason Woods.”
And she’s not the only one to receive this. Someone posted a screenshot of a similar email on Reddit merely two months ago.
Contents
THE QUERY
Can the Student-Loan Debt Department email be considered as a valid offer for student debt relief?
THE RESOURCES
THE CONCLUSION
False, the Student-Loan Debt Department email is not a valid offer for student debt relief and is indeed a scam.
OUR FINDINGS
The email purportedly sent “on behalf of the Student-Loan Debt Department” possesses several critical red flags which VERIFY noticed, classifying it as a scam. There were a few irregularities outside of the email contents too.
The first discrepancy is that the “2024 guidelines” that the email refers to are not finalized or activated. The press release from the White House about the proposal outlines what would transpire “if the plan is rolled out as proposed.”
Another primary anomaly is that a separate VERIFY journalist, who isn’t burdened with any student loan, received an almost identical email with a case number included. The Department of Education maintains track records of those who have loans and those who don’t. Hence, providing student loan forgiveness to a person without student loans or furnishing a case number attached to that person does not make any sense.
Yet, if we keep the above info aside, there are few ways we can conclude that the email was a fraudulent one:
1. The Student-Loan Debt Department is fake
A quick Google search for “Student Loan Debt Department” gives away the truth. Links to Federal Student Aid, the U.S. Department of Education, and the California Student Aid Commission were among the search queries, but there was no mention about any department as the Student Loan Debt Department.
The Education Department does not have a Student Loan Debt Department on its official list. Instead, the department manages student loans, along with student loan forgiveness via Federal Student Aid.
2. The email was not sent from an official email address
The emails that the VERIFY journalists received were from masonwoodsdvkj@hotmail.com and charlesagu1ypa@hotmail.com. These email addresses are not linked to the U.S. Department of Education or any of its student loan servicers.
As per Federal Student Aid, there are only three email addresses from which the U.S. Department of Education sends emails regarding student debt relief. Those three addresses are:
3. The mailing address provided was unusual
The email also gave the same mailing address- PO Box 249 #57223, Albuquerque, NM 87103, for both instances.
The U.S. Department of Education does not maintain any office premises in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Education Department’s regional office, providing services for New Mexico, is situated in
Moreover, the given contact information seems to suggest “we operate as a marketing agency”. Note that a marketing agency does not typically oversee student debt alleviation efforts.
The Federal Student Aid authority cautions that indicators of potential fraud might include unusual capitalization, grammatical errors, or incomplete sentences.
Within the email we find two erroneous versions of the term “student loans”.
The first mistake appears in the entity name “Student-Loan Debt Department”. The term “student loans” should not be separated by a hyphen. The second error converts the term into a single word, which is equally incorrect: StudentLoans.
Additionally, Federal Student Aid mentions that persuasive, urgent demands you to take immediate action are often associated with scams.
It mentions, “The U.S. Department of Education might reach out to outline temporary programs from time to time, but we and our associates will never employ such assertive saleslike language”.
The referenced email from Student-Loan Debt Department employs this tactic by notifying the recipient that their file will be kept open “only for another day”. This invocation of urgency was identified in both emails examined by VERIFY journalists.
It is critical to keep in mind that you don’t have to pay anyone to get your student loans pardoned. Federal Student Aid insists that you can freely interact with and consult the Education Department or your loan manager to devise the most suitable forgiveness plan.
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