Victim Location 43040
Type of a scam Credit Repair/Debt Relief
On Saturday, May 21st, 2016, I received a call at 4:21 pm (Eastern Time) from 617.714.0762. The person was claiming to be with the Department of Education offering student loan debt relief forgiveness. The gentleman (whose English was almost not understandable) then proceeded to ask me questions claiming it was part of the application process. I refused to give personal information and when I explained to him that if he was in fact with a governmental department he would already have such info (info such as social security number, date of birth, etc.). Which he in fact replied with my personal information asking if it was correct. He explained he wanted to show me the offer and asked me to check my email. I had an email requesting a password change for my Federal Student Aid ID. I proceeded to follow the instructions since it was in fact a government website. I was not convinced of the offer and told him I did not wish to proceed and since he continued to talk over me I hung up. I received two call backs and am ashamed to admit on the third call I gave up and gave my bank card information. I was not interested in the offer but did not at this point believe it was a scam and simply wanted the calls to be over, which card info did satisfy him and the call ended.
Tuesday, May 24th, at 8:19 pm I received a call from an unknown number. When I answered it was the same individual claiming to process the debt forgiveness he would need my husband’s personal information since we file our taxes jointly. At that point I told him absolutely not and this process would end immediately. He continued to try to talk over me so I told him to get a supervisor. I am not positive the next gentleman who got on was even a different person but he tried to convince me to give my husbands social security number.
When I hung up I immediately called Nelnet (which is who I am paying my student loans off with) and asked customer service why I was being harassed when I did not want this offer. The woman, confused, asked me to explain the situation. Once I did she advised me to call the Department of Education immediately.
I was informed by the Department of Education that someone (who I verified to not be myself) was logging in with my FSA ID with a password they had created. I was given certain steps to take to ensure this was not a crippling identity theft and thankfully have protected myself in all aspects. I would however like to make others aware since a quick google search of this telephone number lists many different forms of scams.