Students warned to beware of scam emails

Today students were warned to be wary of scam emails purporting to be about loans and grants, later it emerged that 50 scam websites targeting young people have been shut down during the previous year.

Thousands of people are initializing university in the coming weeks and Student Finance England which processes English students loans and grants, nowadays urged students to “remain cautious" and not disclose any personal or bank details in response to email requests that look like they are from either itself or its parent company, the Student Loans Company. Student Finance England expects to make payments of more than 600,000 students this week. Fraudsters are taking advantage to target students who are waiting for money to arrive.

"Students are likely to receive a great deal of correspondence from Student Finance England with payment schedule letters” The fraud manager Heather Laing reported.
She added, Scammers take advantage of this increased contact from the company, and some students may fall victim to an email request that looks to be from Student Finance England. However, they will never ask students to confirm their bank details via email If you receive an email which you suspect is a scam email purporting to be from the Student Loans Company or Student Finance England forward it for investigate.

Laing said the organization monitored the problem closely. Anyone who has already disclosed their details should get in touch with Student Finance England immediately, and also change their account password as soon as possible.

The National Union of Students is supporting the campaign and said that if a student's application had been received and processed; enrolling on their course would release their student finance, including any grant or loan to which they were permitted. The first lump sum would reach their account in two to three working days. The National Union of Students said one of the best ways for people to protect themselves was to remove their email address if it was online, or hide it on social networking sites such as Face book.

BBB Warns About Scam Artists Who Targeting Unemployed

The Better Business Bureau in Dayton is sending out a warning message about scam artists targeting the unemployed workers.

The BBB reported because of the current economic and financial situation, job seekers are not carefully researching opportunities and can become victims of a job related scam.

The BBB cited the latest jobs report from the U.S. Labor Department. It reported new unemployed claims in mid-August unexpectedly jumped to 500,000, a raise of 12,000 over the previous week. John North, BBB president and CEO in Dayton said: The employment rate means a lot of people are worried for work and may be greedy for any job, which creates a great opportunity for scammers.

"Not thoroughly researching a job opportunity can make a bad situation even worse and a victim can lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars to any number of job-related scams."

The BBB said there are some red flags that consumers must look for:

• If the company asks for money upfront
• Profit offered seem too good to be true.
• The employer is quick to ask for your personal information, like Social Security numbers or bank account numbers.
• The Employer e-mails are common with grammatical and spelling errors.
• The employer requires you to wire money through Western Union.

Australian Communications and Media Authority's Warns Of Do Not Call Register Scam

ACMA is forewarning the users of a telemarketing scam that claims to add phone numbers to the Do Not Call Register list for a fee.

Unscrupulous telemarketers are offering to list consumers’ phone numbers on the Do Not Call Register for a fee.

According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, Unscrupulous telemarketers are contributing to list consumers’ phone numbers on the Do Not Call Register for a fee.

An ACMA Chairman, Chris Chapman said: ‘The Do Not Call Register is a free service provided by the Australian Government. He warned the consumers not to provide any personal identification or financial details to telemarketers making such calls.

If you get a call from someone offering to list your number on the Do Not Call Register for a fee, get as much information as possible from the caller and lodge a complaint by calling 1300 792 958 or by logging on to www.donotcall.gov.au.

Mr. Chapman said the ACMA has received more than thirty complaints about these types of scams over the last month, even though the actual number of scam calls being made is likely to be far higher.

For more details on the Do Not Call Register go to www.donotcall.gov.au.