Did you receive an email concerning debt aid from the “Student-Loan Debt Department” following the recent announcement of a new debt alleviation plan by the White House? Here’s why it’s a fraud.
The Biden administration, on April 8, made public its intentions to roll out fresh student debt relief targeting 30 million student debtors. The administration has outlined their plans for this impending program. However, the plans haven’t been designed or put into motion yet.
Therefore, an email received by a VERIFY journalist, claiming eligibility for debt absolution “under the fresh 2024 guidelines” seemed out of the ordinary.
Quoting the email verbatim, it reads, “Hello this is Mason Woods from the Student-Loan Debt Department. We made several attempts to reach you but didn’t get any answer. Your Student Loans are labelled eligible for forgiveness under the fresh 2024 rules. Your case number is #15219. Your file will remain open on my system for one more day only. Kindly, contact your dedicated eligibility line at: (844-681-3875). Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you soon, Mason Woods.”
Our journalist is not the only person to have received such an email. A similar email was also posted on Reddit just two months earlier.
Contents
THE INQUIRY
Is the Student-Loan Debt Department email a valid proposition for student debt assistance?
THE INFORMANTS
THE SOLUTION
No, The Student-Loan Debt Department email is not a valid proposition for student debt assistance. It’s a sham.
OUR FINDINGS
The email appearing to come “from the Student-Loan Debt Department” holds a few major issues that VERIFY noted. These issues establish it as a fraud. Also, there are a couple of concerns not associated with the email itself.
The primary issue is that the “2024 regulations” have not been formalized, nor even put into operation yet. The White House press release announcing the student debt relief plan provides details on what is expected to occur “if the strategy is executed as planned.”
Individually, they wouldn’t be marked eligible for forgiveness under rules that aren’t yet in place or even finalized. And even if they were marked as such, there is no reason behind them having just a day to claim it, especially when the Department of Education states that the plan is still months away from completion.
These sentences can be a clear indication of a potential fraudulent activity.
The received email mishandles the term “student loans” in two distinct ways, both incorrect.
Firstly, it hyphenates the phrase in the moniker “Student-Loan Debt Department.” There’s no need to hyphenate “student loans.” Secondly, it compounds the term into one word, another mistaken version: StudentLoans.
The Federal Student Aid office further cautions that any communication pushing you with forceful language to act quickly is often a scam.
In an official statement, Federal Student Aid explains, “although the U.S. Department of Education may proactively reach out to bring attention to temporary programs, we won’t use assertive advertising language like that. Neither us nor our partners would communicate in such a manner.”
The email from the so-called Student-Loan Debt Department employs this kind of urgent language, warning the recipient that their file will only stay open in their system “for one more day.” Both emails received by our VERIFY journalists contained this urgent statement.
Remember this crucial point: you’ll never have to pay someone to have your student loans forgiven. Federal Student Aid reassures you that negotiating a plan for loan forgiveness with the Department of Education or your loan servicer is entirely free of charge.
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