I have a work-study job in my school library, and love it. I love being around books, and I also love helping people find the information they need. Much of the time, I need to refer students to the professional librarians, but I can handle a lot of requests. Most questions are computer/software-related, such as formatting text in Microsoft Word 2007. Few of the problems I solve have any real significance beyond that person.
Yesterday, however, there was a biggie.
The financial aid office sent a woman down to use a library computer to fill out her FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) online. I told her to let me know if she needs any help. About a half-hour later, she approached the circulation desk, and asked me for some help. I went over to see what the problem was. It seems the FAFSA website was asking her for a credit card number. The cost for filing her application was $79.99.
Uh-oh.
Somehow, she had gone to fafsa.com, which is NOT the legitimate federal student aid site– fafsa.ed.gov! I can only guess that she did a google search for “fafsa,” and selected the dot-com site. There she was, with a pile of income tax papers and W-2 forms… and she had just spent a half hour giving her sensitive information to some shady for-profit website!
I urged her to quickly get out of that phony financial aid website, and put her on the right track. She had some paper work from the financial aid office with the correct FAFSA web address on it, but for whatever reason she had gone to a different site. I think the financial aid office should have been a lot more clear. I felt really bad for her. I hope her information is safe.
“I thought it was free to apply,” she told me, red-faced. “And then when they said it was$79, I knew something was wrong. I’m too old for this stuff, I’m 36…” I tried to assure her that it was okay, and I was glad I set her straight before she got ripped off by a phony site.
Traditional students often have a better understanding of financial aid procedures, but only because they may have been informed by their high school guidance counselors. Non-traditional students don’t always have that kind of support when they return to college.
If you’re applying for federal student aid, protect your personal information and avoid getting ripped off by scam sites pretending to be the US government!
In short, remember these three things:
FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
If a website charges a fee to file your FAFSA or asks for a credit card number, it is definitely a scam.
fafsa.ed.gov is the only legitimate site for applying for federal student aid.
