| Scholarship Scams |
| The Scholarship Workshop LLC P. O. Box 176 Centreville, Virginia 20122 (703) 579-4245 www.scholarshipworkshop.com Copyright © 1999-2010 |
| Expert Scholarship Information from Marianne Ragins, $400,000 Scholarship Winner |
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Books & Resources
Scholarships We Offer
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| Expert Scholarship Information from Marianne Ragins, $400,000 Scholarship Winner |
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In your scholarship search you may find people just itching to take advantage of you. Be
wary of the following statements:
1. "This scholarship requires a handling fee."
2. "We'll do all the work for you."
3. "We need your credit card number or bank account number to hold this scholarship."
4. "We guarantee we'll find you at least 10 scholarships."
5. "You have been selected by a "National Foundation" to receive a scholarship or you
have won a scholarship contest to which you never actually applied.
6. "You are eligible to receive a free scholarship and financial aid package. Please call
us to schedule your appointment at XYZ hotel to pick it up."
If you get information from anyone using these statements contact the Federal Trade
Commission, (877) FTC-HELP, http://www.ftc.gov or the National Fraud Information
Center (NFIC), (800) 876-7060, http://www.fraud.org.
wary of the following statements:
1. "This scholarship requires a handling fee."
- There are a few scholarships that ask for a small fee of $5 or less to cover the
cost of processing and/or mailing application materials. Be extremely cautious
if a program wants more. There are also some programs that request large
application fees like $15.00. Imagine if 1,000,000 students (realistic given the
large reach of the Internet) applied for a scholarship like this at $15.00 each.
Even if the program gave out 100 scholarships of $50,000 each to cover four years
of college, where’s does the rest of the money go? When large sums of money
are involved and programs are asking for fees of $10 or more, make sure to
double check with an outside resource like your counselor to make sure its
legitimate. Please note that some art and talent competitions ask for larger
application fees ($25 - $45) to cover judging and processing costs. Although
many of these are legitimate, check it out with a counselor or the Federal Trade
Commission if it sounds fishy.
2. "We'll do all the work for you."
- Almost all legitimate scholarship programs require some sort of application or
essay. Marianne Ragins applied for many scholarships in her search and all of
them required some type of work. When you hear or see comments like this, it
really is too good to be true.
3. "We need your credit card number or bank account number to hold this scholarship."
- Never give your credit card or bank number to hold a scholarship. Scholarships
are free money to those who qualify and they shouldn't cost you anything to
hold them. If you have legitimately won a scholarship, it should be yours to
claim based on your application and your meeting the requirements of the
scholarship.
4. "We guarantee we'll find you at least 10 scholarships."
- This statement, or ones like it, are used by many shady scholarship search
services. Many of these services merely send you a list of loans that are
available for college. If you're like Marianne and don't consider a loan a
scholarship, then be sure to ask plenty of questions before paying for these
services. Winning Scholarships for College contains a list of questions you should
ask scholarship search services before paying for their help.
5. "You have been selected by a "National Foundation" to receive a scholarship or you
have won a scholarship contest to which you never actually applied.
- To win a scholarship from a program to which you have never applied nor
entered is rare.
6. "You are eligible to receive a free scholarship and financial aid package. Please call
us to schedule your appointment at XYZ hotel to pick it up."
- Usually when you go to pick up your free package at the hotel, you and your
parents are subjected to high pressure sales methods meant to make you
spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to help you with your scholarship
search. The help you receive is something you can usually get from a counselor
or by reading a book.
If you get information from anyone using these statements contact the Federal Trade
Commission, (877) FTC-HELP, http://www.ftc.gov or the National Fraud Information
Center (NFIC), (800) 876-7060, http://www.fraud.org.