Scholarship Scam Alerts

Many legitimate companies promote their organization as an entity, which can provide scholarship listings for students for a fee between $10 and $400 while some entities charge fees for matching a student’s profile to a list of scholarships where the student can apply. Most of these entities do not promise or guarantee grants or scholarships.

However, there are companies who deliberately misrepresent their services by promising that their organization can acquire scholarships for the student in exchange for advance fees. In most cases, parents/students who pay for such services only receive a list of grants or scholarships where they can apply. In general, all who individuals, who have taken advantage of such offers, receive similar list without regard to their qualifications. Some of these companies have a “money back guarantee,” which requires customers to apply to every grant or scholarship in the list and show proof that all of these scholarship-giving bodies denied their applications. Some of these companies do not even provide something in exchange of the advance fee. Some entities even give false hopes to the students by telling them that they have been chosen as “finalist” for scholarship or grant but they have to pay the fees first. Most of these companies ask students to provide them a checking account in order to verify their eligibility for the scholarship. Once they are furnished a checking account, they debit a large amount of money from the said account.

Before a student/parent spends money for grant or scholarship search, he must research first. He can check the Federal Trade Commission website for information. He must also know that getting a scholarship is not a guaranteed endeavor and as such, he must exert effort in checking out these search companies before giving them money.