Scammers are taking advantage of the victims desire to take advantage of debt cancellation up to $20,000 – with the only one cashing in being the scammer!
In August, the U.S. Government announced the Student Loan Debt Relief Plan (SDRP), which provides student loan debt cancellation for specific U.S. income earners. Any time there’s an opportunity for someone to obtain “free” money, the cybercriminal’s ears perk up – as whatever the program is, it’s an opportunity to trick victims into giving up personal information, credit card details, and even banking information.
Late last month, the FBI released an announcement warning about the potential for fraud schemes that target those seeking federal student loan forgiveness. We saw back in July – before the SDRP was even finalized – a rise in malicious PPC ads targeting individuals that would benefit from the loan forgiveness. So, the FBI’s warning is warranted and should be heeded.
Because victims likely don’t know what the process is to receive the debt forgiveness, scammers are able to convince them of the need to complete an “application” (to obtain personal information); provide banking, digital wallet, or credit card details (to steal money); or simply collect a “processing fee”.
While there are no cases (yet) of cybercriminals using this scam to download malware onto victim machines, it’s entirely possible, making it necessary for organizations to increase their employee’s vigilance against such scams using Security Awareness Training.
