My article discusses the report released by the FTC warning families against fake scholarship search services. It goes on to explain the actions the FTC is taking against these companies and why these actions are not enough to stop them. My article also tells the proper way to go about finding a scholarship and advice for people who do not use that method. The article ends with quotes from a student who was swindled by one of the companies, a school counselor, and the FTC. The article is followed up with links to relevant web-pages.
ABSTRACT: The FTC has issued a warning against using scholarship search services and is taking action against such companies. Students seeking scholarships should turn to school counselors for their search and avoid search companies that ask for payment.
FTC Warns Against Phony Scholarship Searches
FTC’s Report on Scholarship Searches
• The Federal Trade Commission issued a warning
• The FTC warns that these search services collect a substantial fee for finding a scholarship for any student.
• The company either issues a list of scholarships that are unavailable or does not do anything at all and keeps the money they collected.
• Some of the companies offer to return the money if a scholarship is not found, but they do not return the money.
• The money stolen from these families is almost never recovered according to an FTC official.
FTC’s Actions
• The FTC filed charges in June 2009 against 11 companies that stole almost $10 million from families with college students.
• The FTC estimates that 300,000 families are swindled by fake scholarship searches every year.
• The FTC will try to seek temporary restraining orders prohibiting companies form engaging in activities the FTC has challenged or the FTC will freeze the company’s assets.
• Even with these restraining orders, companies can close and move to another city or state and open up a new company under a different name and continue to swindle in the same fashion.
Scholarship Search Alternatives
• High school and college counselors provide free services to help students find scholarships according to Matt Adamopoulos, a high school counselor in
• It is impossible to guarantee a scholarship for any student, but the school services will do their best.
FTC’s Advice
• Students should always go through their school counselor for scholarship searches.
• If they do go through another company, they should not give out their credit card number, bank account number, or social security number.
• The fake search companies can use these numbers to empty bank accounts or make more charges on the credit card.
Key Quotes
• “I want to go to a private school. I figure that’d cost maybe $20,000 a year, probably more, and they promised to help, said they help everyone, that there’s lots of money for everyone. Now I’m worse off than I was before. I worked hard for that money and they stole it. It’s a rip-off, a damn rip-off,” said Al Giangelli, a high school senior in
• “We can almost always help really exceptional students, and sometimes the poor. It’s those in the middle we have the toughest time with,” Adamopoulos said about helping students find scholarships
• “If you have to pay money to get money, it might be a scam,” the FTC warned. “Be wary.”
Additional Information
• For information on how to report a scholarship scam, go to this link.
http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/reporting.phtml
• For information on the services school counselors must provide, click on this link.
http://dpi.wi.gov/sspw/sccontentglines.html
• A list of ways to tell if a scholarship is legitimate is offered at this website.
http://www.gocollege.com/financial-aid/scholarships/apply/fake-scholarships.html
This is pretty good--I'm just not sure why you have a graf instead of a single sentence as your intro?
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