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Privacy Databases Education Programming Software IT

Student Financial Aid Database Being Misused 182

pin_gween writes "The Washington Post reports on the probable abuse of the National Student Loan Data System. The database was created in 1993 to help determine which students are eligible for financial aid. Students' Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and loan balances are in the database. It contains 60 million student records and is covered by federal privacy laws. Advocates worry that businesses are trolling for marketing data they can use to bombard students with mass mailings or other solicitations. The department has spent over $650,000 in the past four years protecting the data. However, some senior education officials are advocating a temporary shutdown of access to the database until tighter security measures can be put in place."
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Student Financial Aid Database Being Misused

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  • by toodle-lou ( 1088421 ) on Sunday April 15, 2007 @11:44PM (#18746827)
    its just a matter of time...everybody's personal data will eventually get misused
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by omeomi ( 675045 )
      I guess that explains the hundreds of credit card applications that started showing up right as I started applying to colleges (way back when)...
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Rukie ( 930506 )
      Considering the fact that eventually someone will gain your information, I do have some fear. Unfortuantely? I do not let fear manipulate me. I'm sure my financial data will get out from a credit card company or an ebay or something. This frightens me a little bit because I will be attending college next year. Fortunately, the school I will be attending is fairly new (the campus, not the school). I do look forward to Rochester Institute of Technology, but now I'm getting off topic. I did notice that as soo
    • Did you even read the summary or were you just going for the first post?

      This data isn't hacked, it's being misused, they are completely different situations. This database is giving access to the wrong people who will likely use the data for data mining finiacial information. These people are given complete access like a normal university.

      The real problem though is that it sounds like anyone who logs onto this system has 100 percent access to every entry even without any proof of a business relationship w
  • Duh... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dal20402 ( 895630 ) * <dal20402@nOsPaM.mac.com> on Sunday April 15, 2007 @11:45PM (#18746837) Journal

    O rly?

    I would never have guessed that these guys had anything to do with the 2-3 student loan consolidation offers I get per day...

    I'm sure my future, not just this article, is

    from the six-soliciations-per-day dept.
    • Re:Duh... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Aqua OS X ( 458522 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @12:45AM (#18747165)
      preach on.
      I swear, every week I get some sort of consolidation spam vaguely disguised as a threatening pink or yellow bill.
      • by anagama ( 611277 )
        Either that or disguised as a check. The ridiculous part is that they come from the same half dozen companies -- literally every damn week from each one. The sadder fact is that I already consolidated many years ago and I'm not even eligible.
        • by Aladrin ( 926209 )
          I didn't notice they were from the same companies, but I -was- getting them at a rate of 2-3 per week, all of them disguised as 'important notices from Sallie Mae'... Why does Sallie Mae let them spam?

          Even worse than your ineligibility? Mine is now paid off, and I -still- get them. (Not as many, though.)
        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by BrokenHalo ( 565198 )
          Doesn't your junk mail come with pre-paid envelopes? Just put all the junk mail through a shredder, then stuff it all into the envelope and post it back to them at their expense. If enough people did this, the whole machine would grind to a halt...
    • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
      No kidding. My mailbox is loaded every day with loan consolidation offers (many of them trying to disguise themselves as legitimate correspondence from my student loan company) and "mortgage insurance" offers (I've been FLOODED with these since I bought my house).

      You can't tell me that they are just sending these out to EVERYONE. They are obviously targeting those with student loans. And they had to get that information from SOMEWHERE.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Here's a thought- rather than worry about misuse of students addresses and social security numbers, why don't we address the two real problems:

    1. We need to reign in junk mail; and
    2. Financial institutions need to stop treating a social security number as some sort of password.
  • by User 956 ( 568564 ) on Sunday April 15, 2007 @11:49PM (#18746859) Homepage
    The Washington Post reports on the probable abuse of the National Student Loan Data System.

    Well color me surprised. Or not. Anyone in the financial services industry is well aware that students are prime targets for all sorts of jacked-up offers. That data needs protecting, but the whole credit system in this country needs a major overhaul. [pbs.org]
    • What's the solution? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16, 2007 @01:07AM (#18747261)
      Okay, so reform is needed. But what's the solution, though? Is it legislation-based? Is it market-based? We have to make sure the solution doesn't fuck us over more than the problem it's trying to solve.

      A good example of how a good idea can go wrong is Digg. It addresses one of the sore spots about Slashdot: the ability for anyone to submit news, and immediately have it viewable by others. It also opens up the comment moderation system to everyone. It's the Digg comment moderation I'd like to consider for the moment.

      What we often find is that people in the know get their posts voted down, especially if they say something unpopular (even if completely factual). An example of this is noted Slashdot poster John Randolph, who goes by the handle jcr. He often speaks his mind, and that gets some people at Digg all riled up. So they moderate down his comments. This is especially true in his posts dealing with Apple, where John says it as it is. After all, John worked at Apple for a long time. He knows how things are done there. But that's not good enough for many of the morons at Digg. They bury what are perhaps the most informative, insightful and interesting comments. It's a perfect example of how a system that tries to fix Slashdot ends up being far worse in most cases.

      I could see the same thing happening with proposed solutions to these data protection problems. If it's a legislation-based approach, the law will end up making database server administration far more difficult and time-consuming. A market-based approach will no doubt have even more problems.

      • because there are cliques here and they do the same thing you claim that happens on Digg. People of certain beliefs will without reason mod down anything they don't like regardless of the truth of the statements. (Its probably the best reason to never EVER look at the political section of /.)

        Legislation to change the laws to make all lenders EQUAL is what is needed. Also, get the government out of the loan business and just into guaranteeing it. Let the market assign the risks. If the government thinks
      • So is Digg the market or legislation? Because I'm beginning to lead towards whatever the opposite of Digg is.
    • by ushering05401 ( 1086795 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @04:26AM (#18748039) Journal
      i posted this lower in the thread so it will probably be buried. check out #3, item (d).

      link:http://www.ed.gov/notices/pia/nslds.pdf [ed.gov]

      they sell to 'servicers' of educational institutions and i am guessing y'all signed off on it. if you are pissed about this issue a good question might be how someone is classified as a servicer.

      regards.
  • by Anonymous Coward
    The number of credit card offers you get in the mail your first year at college are ridiculous. At least, they were when I went, and I rather suspect the same is true today.

    The goal is simple: hook them early, let them blow a wad of bills they don't have, and then get their parents to pay for it. For a true horror story on this, take a look at this example [sfgate.com] of a student who had no business getting a credit card getting one, and what happened. (Before you say it, this sort of thing doesn't just happen in S
    • by hazem ( 472289 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @02:19AM (#18747553) Journal
      I got my undergrad at Portland State and have recently started taking graduate classes "for fun"... it's been more than 5 years since I attended.

      The particularly obnoxious thing is not getting credit card offers... no... your student i.d. IS a credit card! It's a mastercard. You have to go online to activate it and when you do, you have the option (if you check the box every time it pops up) to NOT have a credit account attached to it.

      In my mind this is even more insidious than the 5 credit card booths between the registrar's office and financial aid, and the pile of credit card apps in your bookstore bag.

      There's no way to avoid getting the card and you have to work to not make it a credit card.
    • by Aladrin ( 926209 )
      Are you serious? 'No business getting a credit card'? She was in COLLEGE. If you can't handle a credit card by the time you get to college, you have no business being let out side your own damned house.

      She didn't get 'a credit card'. She got more than one, as well as borrowing money from 'money lenders'. She obviously had a real problem and managed to hide it from her family and friends. Her mother DID question the new clothes and such, but that only led to hiding them better.

      After the first credit ca
      • by topham ( 32406 )

        The average college student can't handle a credit card.
        They do not have the resources, or experience and they are in desperate want of money.
        It is entirely irresponsible to give the average college student a credit card, and yet they are marketed to en-mass.
        • Won't someone please think of the college students?

          Seriously, there are some shady things that the CC companies that should, no doubt, be changed, however if a college student, an adult for god's sake, applies for a credit card they should be able to get one.

          Personally I'd prefer that none of the credit cards marketed to anyone en mass, but if I can throw away 10 offers a week, I see no reason why a college kid can't too.
          • by Manchot ( 847225 )
            Just so you know, it's pretty easy to mostly stop credit offers. The FTC forces the credit bureaus have an opt-out page, which is linked to from this page [ftc.gov]. (I've purposely not included the direct link, in case there are other ones with similar-sounding names. Just follow the link on the ftc.gov page.)
    • by moeinvt ( 851793 )
      "The number of credit card offers you get in the mail your first year at college are ridiculous. At least, they were when I went . . ."

      Indeed. Same here.

      My favorite solution was to tear them to shreds, put the scraps in the pre-paid return envelope and mail it. I also had a 2-sided form letter FULL of fine-print telling them why I didn't want their card, what the weather was doing in my part of the country, and describing my super-hero-like powers.

  • Only $650k? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16, 2007 @12:09AM (#18746965)
    Only $650k over a few years to protect that much important data? That's about what the US spends on the Iraqi War _every_six_minutes_. What's wrong with this picture?
  • Doesn't surprise me. (Score:5, Informative)

    by StarvingSE ( 875139 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @12:14AM (#18746985)
    After I was done with school, I consolidated my loans with a company that I spent some time actually researching and making sure they were reputable. However, I kept getting 10+ mailings a month from companies wanting to consolidate my loans. Then the phone calls came. I tell them all that I have already consolidated, yet they continue. It is no surprise to me that they are probably getting my info from this database.
    • by Max Littlemore ( 1001285 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @12:41AM (#18747141)

      Then the phone calls came. I tell them all that I have already consolidated, yet they continue.

      Hi, you called <me/>, first class provider of premium customer service coaching for dodgey loan consolidation services providers. Before we begin, I'm obliged to tell you that this call is being recorded for customer service and validation reasons and that by continuing to use this coaching service, you are agreeing on behalf of your dodgey loan consolidation service provider to be bound by the terms and conditions available online at <free_host_where_I_posted_an_outrageous_contract>. Also you are reminded that if this is a second call by a respresentative of the dodgey loan consolidation service provider you represent, you are agreeing their behalf to the conditions of our $250000 per minute premium service as described in section 3.6a subsection z of the contract found at <free_host_where_I_posted_an_outrageous_contract>, do you understand?

      .....
      If things get any further.....
      .....

      Thank you, but I have already consolidated my loans and I'm really not interested.

      Now I would advise, in order to provide the best possible customer service, you hang up. If this doesn't work for you, please call back for a premium consultation. Have a nice day. *click*

      • by sumdumass ( 711423 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @03:09AM (#18747773) Journal
        When you get these annoying telemarketer calls, regardless of what they are selling, you can stop them easily.

        First, Ask them who they represent. Once they answer with the company they are working for tell them to take you off their list and any other lists they have associated with it and to make sure you don't end back up on the list again. Then tell them your not interested in the of offer and repeat the take me off the list thing again.

        It is important to tell the to take you off the list first because sometimes they will hang up before you can say it after you told them you weren't interested.

        I have heard that if they keep calling you after you told them to take you off the list, you can get something like $500 a pop for each time they call you after. I'm not sure about that specifically but I think the key that really makes this work is that they know you won't buy what they are selling and since you have shown that it angers you to be bothered by them, they move onto someone that will give them a commission or a sale. And trust me, This works quite well in stopping the phone calls. But you have to be specific and keep a record of who is calling. And when you tell them to take you off the list, Don't yell or scream, just speak like you are the principle at a grade school telling a third grader something they did was really bad.
        • First, Ask them who they represent. Once they answer with the company they are working for tell them to take you off their list and any other lists they have associated with it and to make sure you don't end back up on the list again.

          Just to clarify -- it's not good enough to ask them to take you off their list; they'll just take you off the list of the firm that has contracted the telemarketing out to their firm.

          The key is to identify both the firm they are representing (e.g., First Hassle Bank or what-ha

          • Yea, That sounds reasonable. I'm not too sure on the legal aspect of it. I just know that when you tell them to take you from the lists, they generally do.

            I'm not on the national "Do not call list" and I went from about four to five calls per night to less then 1 call per month. I even had one telemarketer (from some time share vacation/travel agency that i inadvertently signed up for while entering the door prize drawing at a computer show) Claim I asked to be on their list and they had a right to call me.
        • by Misch ( 158807 )
          Here's the Junkbusters Telemarketing Script [junkbusters.com]
        • I have always thought that it would be fun, if one had an Asterisk [wikipedia.org] box, to set up an automated plugin or script that would respond with phrases such as, "that sounds interesting, can you tell me more?", "I don't know, I'm just not sure", "yeah", "uh-huh", put them on hold randomly for random intervals, etc in a never ending loop so that the telemarketer stays on the call as long as possible while gathering no useful information and making no sale. You could even record the transcripts for a few laughs.
          • an automated plugin or script that would respond with phrases such as, "that sounds interesting, can you tell me more?", "I don't know, I'm just not sure", "yeah", "uh-huh",
            I'm pretty sure you don't want to respond with a "yeah" or "uh-huh" to anything a telemarketer says...
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      They try to design that stuff to look like the scary kind of mail you get from a company you're already doing business with. They go for the panic sell... "OMG $student_name you have to refinance your loan with $creditor_name as soon as possible or else you're screwed!" They seem to know all sorts of stuff about your personal business. We get this crap all the time for my wife's law school loan. It's carefully designed to look like bills or tax forms associated with the loan, so you have to examine it to ve
      • by esmrg ( 869061 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @01:50AM (#18747433)
        Examine what?
        Mail has various rates. If I grab a letter, first thing I look at is the top right hand corner. PRESRT STD. Throw way. No seriously, burn. No need to read or consider $this_offer. If anyone sends you or me anything of even the mildest importance, it's FIRST CLASS. Don't let any of the lies printed across the envelope fool you. Standard mail is always junk. However, many bills are presort first class, so be careful you notice the STANDARD or STD.
        Sometimes the firm may even have the wallet to mail a first class solicitation (although rare). In this case, they probably spent a bit more money to have you throw it away.
        • Part of my business involves direct mail advertising. I send all of my direct mail first class (with a real stamp, not a meter) for two reasons:
          1. I don't send enough to make bulk mailing worth my while (presorting, bulk license fees, etc.), and
          2. I get a better response rate when I use a first class stamp--probably because more people open the letter

          I know some folks in my business who even go so far as to pay senior citizens in nursing homes to hand address their direct mail for them. Just trying to eek out

      • This website is a dream: Opt-out prescreen [optoutprescreen.com]

        This obviously doesn't stop loan consolidation mail, but it works for credit card and other junk mail that can potentially be used to steal your identity if mishandled (aka not shredded and just tossed). I know what you are saying about the scare tactics. Credit cards are sneakier and they don't even label the envelope anymore, and you only know what it is after you open it.
    • What's funny is, there are people who still think of universities as being "non-profit, therefore for the public good" places. Sorry kids, someone who whores out your data for quick cash isn't "non-profit"; they simply don't distribute the profits to shareholders.
      • by spun ( 1352 )
        I used to live in New Haven, CT., home to Yale University. Yale owns most of downtown. They rent out commercial space to hundreds of businesses. They pay no taxes because they are non profit, therefore New Haven has no money for government services. Most of New Haven is a horrible run-down ghetto. The rest is snooty rich Yale alumni. It's surreal. You can walk two blocks from million dollar mansions and find yourself in a running gun battle between rival gangs.

        Those profits, which they aren't calling profit
        • You know, for someone as far away from me ideologically as you are, we agree way too much.
          • by spun ( 1352 )
            Why do you think I respond to you so often? Frankly, I like conversing with smart people who don't agree with me on all points FAR more than I like conversing with dumb people who do.
    • Funny, I used to be in the same boat. I live in a college house with a lot of people having gone through it. We used to get a ton of mailings for credit card companies AND we get a ton of junk mail like coupons, etc...

      What I do is this: 1) Stack up the credit card offers and stack up the junk mail separately 2) Open all the credit card offers and pull out the contents and add to junk pile 3) Collect all of the prepaid envelopes 4) Start stuffing the prepaids with all the junk 5) If the envelope is full,
  • by flyingfsck ( 986395 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @12:32AM (#18747095)
    I know *all* SSN, credit card, phone numbers and dates of birth and I'll gladly sell them to anyone at only 1c each.
    • If that comes with names, dates of birth, mother's maiden name, home addresses, telephone number, etc. then I'll take 10,000 of 'em, preferably Caucasian males around age 36. I have some, uh, special projects I want to use them for.
  • by Aluvus ( 691449 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @12:34AM (#18747107) Homepage

    This past week I (a college student, with financial aid) got a letter stating I was pre-approved for a loan of $3,500 on condition of proving I own a home.

    I live in a dorm. At a school in another state.

    Apparently their "prescreening" folks can't even figure things out when they have a large chunk of my personal information staring them in the face.

    • You think it's incompetence. good for them.

      This is their method of seeing if the information they have of you is up-to-date.
      After all, if their information shows that you live in a dorm, that doesn't mean you still do.
  • by Loconut1389 ( 455297 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @12:37AM (#18747125)
    ISU was rumored to have sold off our entire phonebook to marketers for like $2M at one point while I was a student.
  • by jasmak ( 1007287 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @12:43AM (#18747151)
    I am still in college, and currently me and everyone I kno all get tons and tons of letters for consolidations and credit cards. What I think should happens is that everyone should band together against these junkmailing companies to end it(or at least take a shot at the man). Here is how it works:

    1) Open junk mail

    2) Remove return envelope

    3) Fold up the rest of the contents as they arrived and stuff them in the envelope

    4) Send it back to them

    I figure if enough people do this, it can begin to make a dent by doubling how much they pay for each mailing(how many people actually sign up with junkmail anyhow) or at least maybe they will take me off their list(doubtful) but in the worst case... I am giving them they exact pain the inflict on me by having to open worthless mail.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      Why settle for simply doubling their mail costs when you could just duct-tape the return envelope to a brick and make it cost several dollars? :)
    • by techno-vampire ( 666512 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @01:48AM (#18747423) Homepage
      I am still in college, and currently me and everyone I kno...


      ...flunks English.

    • Careful, or they'll send you applications that already have "Yes, please lend me money" checkmarked!
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Trojan35 ( 910785 )
      I always like junk mail. It's one more company helping support the USPS, which I find to be very useful and cheap. Their spam keeps my rates down.

      Email on the other hand...
    • by Emperor Tiberius ( 673354 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @03:47AM (#18747905) Homepage
      I get consolidation offers every week. Like most physical spam, I toss it in my shred bag. When the bag gets sufficiently full, I shred it.

      Now these scum bags are sending offers in envelopes that say things like "final notice," and "government notice." Shouldn't this be illegal? Now I actually have to examine some of the more deceiving items to make sure they're not real.
    • by DoofusOfDeath ( 636671 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @04:19AM (#18748013)

      I am still in college, and currently me and everyone I kno

      Best. Quote. Ever. :)

    • I've been doing this for years but you got one of the steps wrong.

      1. Rip up their marketing material and put it to one side. Don't fold it up as they can then use it again. Also try not to send the same company their own stuff back.

      2. Cram the envelope with bits of ripped up mail. If the company is a persistent offender then make get a big envlope, fill it full of crap and sellotape the envelope to it (if they want it delivering they'll have to pay extra to receive it)

      3. Alternatively use the envelope
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      I've always heard that you get a "RETURN TO SENDER" stamp and start stamping all your junk mail. Eventually stuff will make it back into there system.

      I'm interested if anyone here has tried this and if it works.

      Alternatively does anyone know how to stop the weekly circulars that I get every Thursday? I've had my mail shut off because I was out of town for a few weeks and my (apartment) mailbox became stuffed with these circulars and they thought I moved. I'm tired of throwing these away every week. I asked
    • by brarrr ( 99867 )
      I used to do the same thing but someone pointed out that there's a flaw to step 3. The mail sent back post-paid in the return envelope is at a standard rate, not based on weight. By stuffing things into the return envelope the only person you're burdening is the mailman carrying your letter and the marginal extra fuel costs to deliver... so now I just return the envelopes empty but sealed (unless it is a company that I am invested in in which case i just get annoyed that they wasted money advertising to m
    • 1) Open junk mail
      2) Remove return envelope
      3) Fold up the rest of the contents as they arrived and stuff them in the envelope
      4) Send it back to them

      You are not going far enough.
      A prepaid envelop can be used as a shipping label to ship up to 72 lbs.
      So, barring anything dangerous or restricted, add items (heavy preferably, like rocks) in a box, make sure it does not move too much in the box, close the lid securely, tabe the return envelop on it and send through the usps.
      The worst they can do is ban use from us
  • I can handle the junk mail and advertisements but what I can't handle is the complete incompetence of the financial aid department at my school. Without this database it will be a god damned nightmare getting my aid award. It's hard enough WITH the bloody database but without it god help us all.
  • that Cheney & Co. trolls the DB for more Iraq/n cannon fodder.
    • by sconeu ( 64226 )
      Other than the political BS on this, I'd just like to point out that to get financial aid, if you're male, you *must* register with the Selective Service Administration. So the armed forces don't need to troll this DB.

      It's been this way since 1980, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. As part of the high school class of 1980, I was rather pissed about it, since the draft had been eliminated a few years previously.
  • by Quiet_Desperation ( 858215 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @02:59AM (#18747735)

    Based on the skills of some of our engineering new hires from expensive schools, I'd say the student aid itself is being misused.

  • "Katherine McLane said the agency has spent more than $650,000 since 2003 to safeguard the database."

    Wow, a whopping $650k? What's that, two salaries plus expenses?
    I think that more accurately spun "the agency has spent less than $700,000 since 2003...."

  • by Zorque ( 894011 )
    I've been getting credit card offers since my senior year of high school. No Child Left Behind makes it legal for schools to do pretty much whatever they want with your information, and you can't stop them (at least this was my school's excuse). Furthermore, from what I've been told, the school is required to give information to any military branch that requests it.

    How do I know it's the school that's been doing it? They've always spelled my name Zajary instead of Zakary on all their mailings, and that's wh
  • It's time (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hey! ( 33014 ) on Monday April 16, 2007 @09:11AM (#18749349) Homepage Journal
    that we have a privacy bill of rights in the US.

    This would give individuals rights around information that government and third parties collect on them, the most important being informed consent. It should be a crime to divulge or acquire electronic records without informed consent of the subject, excepting national intelligence and criminal investigation. Furthermore the right of informed consent by manadatory opt-in should be inalienable. Right now the status of privacy rights in the US can be summed up, to a first approximation, as this: if you can get your hands on a piece of information about somebody without breaking a law, it's yours to do with as you please for whatever you please.

    If the government collects information about you, and it is divulged in a way that is not clearly illegal, then it becomes fair game. If you sue or are sued, the records of that suit, win, lose, or settled, can be harvested and put into commercial intelligence databases on you. If you sue your employer, you may find it hard to get a job afterwards. The records are made public to ensure the fair operation of the courts, but the same process exposes you to unfair judgment in an invisible (to you) commercial database.

    Civilization will not come to an end if people are participants in how their information is used and divulged. Such rights are guaranteed in Europe via the European Convention on Human Rights. Harmonizing our laws with Europe will be good in the long term for our industry. Right now we are operating under an exception that allows EU data to be processed by American companies that promise to follow EU guidelines. But information privacy is not valued at all by companies here and therefore they aren't any good at it. It's only a matter of time before some horrible mishandling of data puts this on the trade agenda again.

    Bringing ourselves up to scratch with the best international standards would be better for our citizens than digging in our heels. It would hurt some individual companies, but in the long run will allow American companies to compete better in a global services economy.
  • I've been out of school since last Fall, and the past couple months I've been getting 2-3 letters a week from "Joe Bob Student Loan Debt Consolidation" Don't wait, consolidate now for 3-8%. While I do want to get a debt consolidation loan, it's downright scary when you have a couple hundred options and no idea what is legit. What worries me the most! How does Joe Bob know I have exactly x dollars on my Federal student loans? Shouldn't that be private?
  • A few days ago i requested an information packet from a local technical college via an online request form. i used my cell phone for the phone number. Today i received a call from a student loan consolidation company on my cell phone. I missed the call, but called it right back and the guy who answered the phone said he was from this loan consolidation company. I asked why they called me and he asked if i was interested in a student loan. I said I don't have any (I don't) and please take me off your list.

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