The University of Hartford Office of Financial Assistance became aware that students were being scammed by a company known as Student Advocates into receiving Student Loan Forgiveness on Facebook.

This company along with other companies used Facebook in order to gather personal information and collect money from students that are interested in receiving loans.

“For example, in order to complete one of these applications, they would need student’s social security number, date of birth, um very personal information they we don’t want that we don’t want to be giving out to them,” Director of Financial Aid Victoria Hampton explains that the program should already have that information through the school and that students may even become victims of identity theft.

For the time being, Student Advocates has been sent a warning, but until they have been stopped the university would like to advise students if they ever come across these scams they would want to reach out to the Department of Consumer Protection either in the state of Connecticut or the state the student is a resident of.

Students are advised to be aware that illegitimate sites attempt to exploit personal information from those victimized by the scam. Legitimate sites should have the information readily available for the student on their site and an application for students to fill out as oppose to a phone call to the company itself.

Legitimate loan services are issued by the Federal Government and students should only receive their loans from them or the school that they attend.

If students have any questions regarding their student loans, it is best advised that they contact the Office of Financial Assistance to determine whether a loan service is legitimate and for where is an appropriate place to receive a loan.