Student Loan Scams - An Item from Snopes

I thought this was interesting and worth sharing.  We see various "Student Loan" calls posted, and the Snopes story gave me some insight to this niche of scams.

http://www.snopes.com/student-loan-forgiveness-scam/
Wrong Number
We called "EDU Loan Servicing" after it was featured on a "consumer watchdog" page; it appears to be one of many scams.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education said that more than 300,000 Americans could be eligible for student loan forgiveness due to disability. But that key bit of information is absent from a "breaking news" story featured on ISupportForgiveness.org, which instead directs readers to call a phone number.

So we tried the number out twice. The first time, when asked to identify their company, the person who answered identified them as "EDU Loan Servicing." There is no apparent listing for a business by that name. The second time, the person answering the phone immediately tried to gather personal information, asking, "Do you have more than $10,000 in student debt?" Upon being informed that it was Snopes.com calling and not someone seeking help with their loans, the person said, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you," and hung up.

Not only is "EDU Loan Servicing" not part of the list of federally-approved student loan servicers, but its possible existence is also undermined by the fact that its notice was posted on I Support Forgiveness, which promotes itself as a product review site ...

Student loan scams are widespread in the United States.  The most common hoaxes include loan consolidation, debt elimination, and getting borrowers out of default — all for a price...

   What to do instead: When you’re ready to consolidate your student loans or switch repayment plans, ignore websites that don’t include “.gov” in their URLs, or that don’t belong to one of the government’s official loan servicers.

It's important to look into any company that may advertise or contact you out of the blue, particularly if they charge for their services.  The federal government offers loan repayment advice and assistance for free.

The "I support forgiveness" web site has been up for less than a year and is set to expire in roughly 12 days.  They used privacy service out of Panama to hide who they are.

The number is gone, instead it takes you to a web site that lists itself in Philly.  The address at the bottom of the homepage of the web sites is a UPS store.  The address in the Whois registry is a large office building with several well known businesses in it such as Rite Aid Pharmacy.  Nothing else sticks out as far as tenants go.

From the web site:

Quote:

We are not and do not claim to be affiliated with the following: any local, state or federal government agencies; Department of Education; or any student loan servicers, lenders or providers. We are not a lender, and we are not a legal advice service. We an independent preparer of documents and forms to assist debtors with the necessary paperwork needed to complete the student loan consolidation or forgiveness process. If you need Legal or Financial advice please contact a Lawyer or other financial professional.

studentloanhelpdesk.com registry whois
    Updated 1 second ago - Refresh
Domain Name: STUDENTLOANHELPDESK.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, LLC
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 146
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS75.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS76.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 26-jul-2016
Creation Date: 25-jul-2012
Expiration Date: 25-jul-2017
studentloanhelpdesk.com registrar whois
    Updated 1 second ago
Domain Name: studentloanhelpdesk.com
Registry Domain ID: 1735668224_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Update Date: 2016-07-26T15:52:18Z
Creation Date: 2012-07-25T15:51:20Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-07-25T15:51:20Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: email@godaddy.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Registrant ID: Not Available From Registry
Registrant Name: Colin Sholes
Registrant Organization: Cure Consulting LLC
Registrant Street: 215 south broad st
Registrant Street: 3rd Floor
Registrant City: Philadelphia
Registrant State/Province: Pennsylvania
Registrant Postal Code: 19107
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.2677129570
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: email@cure.net

The business listed in the web site registration:
https://www.bizapedia.com/pa/cure-consulting-llc.html
Company Name:      CURE CONSULTING, LLC
File Number:      4325809
Filing State:      Pennsylvania (PA)
Filing Status:      Active
Filing Date:      December 31, 2014
Company Age:      1 Year 11 Months
Principal Address:
        215 South Broad Street, 3rd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107

I ran the phone number used and found this:

http://website.informer.com/Colin+Sholes+Cure+Consulting+LLC.html

Welcome to ParentAdviser
Apr 13, 2016
Created:     2006-08-08
Expires:     2016-08-08
Owner:     Sai Pola
Hosting company:     GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar:     GODADDY.COM, LLC
IPs:     54.165.64.148
DNS:     ns23.domaincontrol.com
ns24.domaincontrol.com
Email:     See owner's emails

Domain Name: parentadviser.com
Registry Domain ID: 547605098_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Update Date: 2015-09-19T19:29:41Z
Creation Date: 2006-08-08T17:03:41Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-08-08T17:03:41Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Registrant ID: Not Available From Registry
Registrant Name: Sai Pola
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: B-1801, Meenakshi Trident Towers
Registrant City: Hyderabad
Registrant State/Province: Andhra Pradesh
Registrant Postal Code: 500032
Registrant Country: IN
Registrant Phone: +91.9652518260
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: saipola@gmail.com

Looks like they are changing site names, and the scam is being run out of (Gasp! Who woulda thought?) India with an American being used to launder the money.

The "American" being used to launder the money might be an Indian in America.
And American law enforcement investigation is stymied by the registrant being in another country. A front for a front for a front ?

http://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/articl ... ing-1600470.php
Illegal immigrants from India are fastest growing
Illegal immigrants from India on the rise
Experts say many come to U.S. legally, overstay visas

By James Pinkerton
Published 5:30 am, Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The fastest-growing group of illegal immigrants in the United States doesn't speak Spanish. They typically aren't found at day labor sites or streaming across the Southwest border into the U.S.
Instead, they're here in America working in tech companies, small businesses, as engineers or other highly skilled jobs. And they're coming from India.
...
Locally, this trend is especially relevant since Indians make up one of the fastest-growing immigrant groups in Harris County, with 35,971 counted in the 2000 Census. They also represent a highly visible and influential immigrant community. The Houston area has 6,629 businesses owned by Indian-Americans, according to the most recent Census Bureau data.

(Odd how more recent articles are not showing up on the first page of Yahoo search engine results at this time - search phrase : undocumented aliens Indian ).

That website homepage has a Facebook page link, with this phone number : 844-243-9205
posted over and over and over ... inane.

So I hit Yahoo Search with that number and found several look-alike websites with "news articles" that are the same "article" with slight variations. And they have clickbait ads too.
Visit at your own risk ! First link I give a few sentences to show how crummy the sites are.

http://www.adderinplus . com/

WASHINGTON — The Obama current administration declared Tuesday an organized plan to forgive $7 .7 billion in fed college student unpaid debt used by about 387 ,000 Americans , of these an estimated about half of , 179 ,000 have been in fail to pay .

This is exactly something useful . As there are plenty of People in the USA are suffering undergraduate loan money . Disabled Us residents aren’t the just people that be approved for student student loan forgiveness . You might also in case you’re suffering from a fiscal difficulties .

http://www.adderinplus . com/2016/08/31/obama-forgives-7-7-billion-usd-of-undergraduate-loan-debt/
http:// viralfallout . com/2016/08/31/obama-forgives-7-7-billion-dollars-of-undergraduate-loan-debt/
http:// jurassicbuzz . com/obama-forgives-7-7-billion-cash-of-undergraduate-loan-debt/
http:// viralflashback . com/obama-forgives-7-7-billion-cash-of-college-student-loan-debt/
http:// theviralbuzzpost . com/obama-forgives-7-7-billion-usd-of-college-student-loan-debt/
http:// www.showalllocal . com/2016/09/09/obama-forgives-7-7-billion-cash-of-undergraduate-loan-debt/
http:// theviralbuzzing . com/government-lends-hand-to-university-students/
http:// theviraltiger . com/obama-forgives-7-7-billion-cash-of-undergraduate-loan-debt/

Made some images of webpages using the information you provided, and posted them to imgur.
http://imgur.com/a/NOu8d

Good move on the images, William. And good posts by all of you :)

Yes, there's all these so called "student loan forgiveness" sharks (as I like to call them) out there. IMO, the best way is to go through the DOE (and their studentaid.gov site) itself and work on whatever method (there are several) would work best! Can be a bit tedious but it's better than being "taken to the cleaners" by these phony student loan scam ops that seem to be popping up over the last several years.

The Snopes website had a screen snap of one of the web ads, and more info than what I did a copy/pasta on above.  It is a pretty good Snopes style story, worth a quick read.  I was going to keep the link handy for the student loan posts and shills.

This post is making false allegations on Sai. As parentadviser.com is just a domain owned by Sai and this website has no information about current topic.
Parentadviser.com ,  do not claim to be affiliated with the following: any local, state or federal government agencies; Department of Education; or any student loan services, lenders or providers.
We are not a lender, and we are not a legal advice service.

Hey guys,
This is Sai Pola here.. I am no way connected to the company Cure Consulting LLC! Never ever.
We are a domain name trading company that buys domain names in Godaddy auctions and sells. ParentAdviser.com is just one of our 8,000 domain names.. Looks like we have bought it when it was dropped by the previous owners (Cure Consulting LLC?)

Hope that helps!

Thanks,
Sai Pola.
CEO
DomainPros.com

You ARE connected to the company. If you own the domain name, you're connected.

Not necessarily .  If the domain expired and they bought it, that doesn't demonstrate any connection to the original owners at all. They are domain brokers, and buy a lot of domain names. If you got a new phone number, you'd have no connection to the previous owner. It has a typical domain broker template and request to contact them if you are interested in the domain. So I'm with Sai on this one.

One good thing about the Student Loan sharks, is the FTC has recently taken action against several of them with "Operation Game of Loans":
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-release ... nwide-crackdown

@William - All those similar articles are probably backlink farming, trying to boost the search engine ranking of their main site when people search for student loan forgiveness.