UTB-TSC Scholarship Scam Warns Alert to Students

In a scholarship scam, students are being victimized to pay an amount of $249 as the processing fees for scholarships, warned the UTB-TSC officials, as reported in THE MONITOR on October 27, 2011.

According to the Director of financial aid at the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, Mary Comerota, the whole scam was discovered when a student communicated with her about the details of the e-mail received on October 18, 2011.

The content of the e-mail is a complete junk created with the motive of enticing young minds on the base line charity with a new $ 2,000-10,000 grant and asking them for further details like name, e-mail, date of birth, city, state, and zip code for processing the grant.

Comerota, however was much amazed by the authentic looking e-mail as it was received by some students only. These students were asked to fill a personal form for compensation of the estimated fee. But according to the organization, such a compensation fee of $249 is never being charged from the students, as published in BUSINESS GUIDE BLOG on October 28, 2011.

Comerota sympathized at such an agony and accustomed people of tracking down the source of the scam. She also acknowledged being aware of such similar scams from other community colleges, such as San Jacinto College near Houston.

The director also announced that a small number of students have also inquired about the issuing of a grant or aid from a financial assist office.

However, the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid Bureau has dedicated a complete website with lots of tips to students on such scams and the ways of avoiding themselves from such scams.

According to the University officials all information related to financial aid or any notifications on scholarships are sent from either FANEWS@utb.edu or financialaid@utb.edu.

While commenting on the scam, Comerota also accustomed that this is the best time for such a scam as during this period of time, the process for the next academic year commences and students are generally looking out for such aids.

Adding to the issue, Comerota said that under any circumstances, if a student believes being victimized of such a scam, they should immediately contact the UTB-TSC financial aid office.

Moreover, while commenting on the latest scholarship scam, the officials said that this instance is not definitely the first time. Similar scholarship scams have ruled the history as in March 2011, an e-mail was processed from Career Stimulus Package. The content of this fake e-mail accustomed students of being eligible for a career of their choice, for which the Career Stimulus Package is presenting them with a $4,000 tuition towards the first semester. The message ended with a jovial note saying that recipients must have enjoyed the whole e-mail. To further give it an authenticated look, a link was forwarded for discontinuing e-mails from the advertiser.

» SPAMfighter News - 11/4/2011