Greg's Corner

Updates from June, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Geebo 8:01 am on June 2, 2020 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: identity theft ( 96 ), pennsylvania ( 7 ), Scams ( 1,228 ), wic   

  New scam targets mothers on food assistance 

  

  As if it wasn’t bad enough that scammers were targeting Pennsylvania’s unemployment system, now it seems the scammers are also targeting those in the Keystone State that are also in need of food assistance. According to state officials, scammers are now targeting recipients of the Women, Infants, and Children program otherwise known as WIC. WIC is a government assistance program that helps provide healthcare and nutrition to low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and children under the age of five.

  According to reports, scammers are posing as WIC representatives and calling recipients promising them additional funds. The scammers will then ask the WIC recipient for personal information such as their Social Security information or banking information. Some scammers have promised to deposit the phony funds directly into the recipient’s bank account.

  The information stolen by the scammers can be used for any number of additional crimes such as identity theft or money laundering. Just because someone may be in a low-income situation it doesn’t mean that their personal information isn’t valuable to online criminals. Anyone with a Social Security number is potentially at risk.

  Pennsylvania WIC’s office says that if you’re unsure if a call from WIC is legitimate or not to hang up and call the WIC office directly.

  We’d also like to remind our readers that just because this scam isn’t currently happening in their state, that doesn’t mean it may not be in their state soon. The current unemployment scam problems started in one state and quickly spread to several others.

  We find this scam particularly reprehensible since it could potentially take food and healthcare away from those who need it most. We wonder when the scammers will start taking candy from babies.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on June 1, 2020 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: debt forgiveness ( 13 ), Scams ( 1,228 ), student debt ( 15 ), student loans ( 15 )   

  New scam promises student loan forgiveness 

  

  With the cost of college tuition always rising and salaries largely remaining stagnant, we have a generation of college graduates who may work their whole lives just to pay back their student loans. People of that generation have also been found to be just as vulnerable to scams as their grandparents’ generation. Far be it for scammers to not try to take advantage of those two facts.

  According to Wikipedia, Navient is a U.S. corporation whose operations include servicing and collecting student loans. They recently settled a lawsuit over student debt forgiveness, however, the settlement doesn’t provide relief for those who owe money to Navient. But the scammers are hoping to cash in on the confusion over the lawsuit settlement.

  Scammers are posing as Navient employees and calling people telling them that due to the settlement the debtors are eligible to have their student debt partially or fully forgiven. There’s only one thing the debtors need to do. You just need to give your Social Security number and pay a fee to transfer the debt to the Department of Education.

  Not just any fee mind you, the scammers are asking for monthly payments from your debit or credit card to maintain the loan forgiveness. So, while the scammers are taking monthly payments from you, nothing is happening with your student debt. So not only are you paying these scammers monthly payments but you’ll probably be ignoring your student loan payments leading to a series of financial nightmares that no one should have to go through.

  However, there is hope. The settlement made it that if your loan payments are being collected by Navient, you can contact them to see if you are, in fact, eligible for loan forgiveness.

  Companies like Navient aren’t going to just call you out of the blue to possibly lose the profits they’ve already gained. Unsolicited phone calls that promise you a way out of debt are almost always too good to be true.