Court temporarily stops student loan relief scam

A federal court this month issued an order, in a case filed by the Federal Trade Commission, to temporarily stop a predatory student loan relief scam that targeted Puerto Rican, Spanish-speaking borrowers. According to the FTC’s complaint against USA Student Debt Relief/Start Connecting SAS, operating out of Florida and Cali, Colombia, these entities falsely represented to consumers that they were affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education or with legitimate loan servicers. They told consumers that they were qualified for federal programs with fixed, affordable monthly loan payments but that the consumers would have to pay upfront fees before participating.

The Florida district court found that the defendants “made material misrepresentations regarding their student loan debt relief services, published fake reviews and testimonials, employed unfair practices toward monolingual Spanish-speaking consumers, taken illegal advance fees, engaged in illegal telemarketing, and used false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements to obtain or attempt to obtain customer information of a financial institution.”