As you begin looking for ways to pay for college, you may find yourself confronted with a lot of offers for loans and scholarships. Yet there are people out there that want to prey on your Christianity and your lack of knowledge about college funding. The more Christian teens know about college scholarship scams, the less likely they are to be victims. If you do question the legitimacy of any scholarship offers, check with the Better Business Bureau or Federal Trade Commission to see if the program is trustworthy.
Here are four of the most common scholarship scams:
1. The Money-Back Guarantee Scholarship Search
One of the biggest scams comes from "companies" that guarantee they will find you at least a certain amount of money in scholarships for a fee - or you get your money back. Those fees can cost Christian teens anywhere from $10 to $500. These companies often just send you the same list of scholarships you can get for free elsewhere. And what do you have to do to get your money back? You have to provide a rejection letter from every scholarship program the company provided for you. Even then you may never get that money back.
2. "You're a Finalist!"
But you never entered the contest. Some scams will seek out Christian teen students, which is something most legitimate scholarship programs just don't do. Most scholarship programs have just enough money to provide the scholarship itself and expect students to seek out the scholarship. Often these "finalist" scholarship scams result in Christian teens being asked to provide money or offer a credit card number, which should never be required to receive a scholarship.
3. Hold That Scholarship!
Getting your credit card or bank account number is often the goal of college scholarship scams. Often scam artists will tell you that they need a credit card or bank account number to "hold" the scholarship. However, when you give your account information out the "company" then takes all the money out of your accounts or charges up your credit card.
4. This Scholarship Will Cost You Money
There are very few scholarship offers that require processing fees. If a scholarship does require a fee, it is usually very small and the company will check out with the FTC or BBB. However, a fee is usually a sign of a college scholarship scam or for-profit program. Sometimes the company brings in more money than it hands out in scholarships while other times it does not give out any money at all.
