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division of academic services
guidance services
Scholarship Scammers Settle with FTC
A company called National Student Financial Aid (NSFA) has agreed to pay $115,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges of misrepresenting the ability to obtain scholarships for college-bound students. NSFA, based in Carson City, NV, invited students and their families at random (although they were told they had been specially "selected" to participate in high-pressure sales seminars where NSFA services were sold. These products were priced from $795 to $1,200 and consisted of various "customized" services such as finding colleges with a desired major and the largest financial aid package available, among other bogus "customized" goods.
The FTC charged that in fact NSFA provided victims with generic career, financial, and college admission information, and falsely claimed that students could get much larger financial aid packages through them than by other methods. The FTC states over 40,000 families utilized NSFA services, resulting in over $10 million in revenue for NSFA. Read the FTC's press release on the settlement at: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/08/nsfa.htm
This settlement is part of the FTC's ongoing "Project ScholarScam," which combines consumer education and law enforcement efforts to reduce the victimization of students by false scholarship claims. Fact sheets and other information can be downloaded for free from the Project ScholarScam website at:
http://www.ftc.gov/scholarshipscam
where the FTC advises students and their families to first consult their school counselor or financial aid advisor before paying for scholarship- or admission-related information.
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