Many scholarship-finding services will tell you that "millions of dollars in private scholarship money goes unused every year" and they can guarantee that you will get this money by using their service and most of time there is up front fee incur. BEWARE! It might be scholarship scam's trap. In general, if you have to pay money to get money, it's probably a scam.

Every year thousand of students and parents are defrauded by scholarship scams. And many of them even unaware that they had dropped into the trap of scholarship scams, the victims usually write off the money paid up front to the scams as thinking they just simply didn't win the scholarship.

Let review some of common scholarship scams so that your will be alerted and precaution about the suspicious scholarship offers.

Common Scholarship Scams

According to the Federal Trade Commission's Scholarship Scams, if you receive an offer that uses one of these tactics, be suspicious:



• The scholarship is guaranteed or your money back
  Beware of scholarship-finding services that guarantee you will win a scholarship or your money will be refunded. If it is a scam, you will find it extremely difficult to qualify for refund, because this refund guaranteed often have terms & condition attached. Get and review refund policies before you pay.

• Ask for your credit card or bank account to hold the winning scholarship for you
  If you receive phone call saying that you have won a scholarship and they need your credit card or bank account in order to hold the winning scholarship for you. Never! Never give out any credit card or bank account without getting information or confirmation in writing first. It might be a set-up for an unauthorized withdrawal from your account.

• A super low interest rate loan that need advance fee
  This scam will offer you an unusual low interest rate loan but they will ask you to pay for a fee during the loan application submission. And when you pay for it, the promised loan never materializes. Be aware, real education loan usually deduce the fees from the disbursement check. It never required you to pay for a fee when you submit an application. If the loan is not issued by a bank or other recognized lender, it is probably a scam. Check the offer with your local bank's manager before you pay.

• You can't get this scholarship information from anywhere else
  There are many scholarship lists available for public. A real scholarship is normally announced to public and you can get this information easily from college and the recognized financial aid agencies. Start your own researching from those locations before you pay for somebody to do the work for you.

• You won a scholarship prize!
  The scam will inform you that you have won a college scholarship worth a few thousands of dollars but you will be asked to pay for a "redemption" fee or taxes before they can release your prize. If you receive this good news but you don't remember entering any scholarship contest, be suspicious. Even If you have entered the contest, check and get the winning confirmation letter first before any payment being made. There are scams use the real scholarship contest to cheat for money, they know many people are enrolled for the contest and by chance you are in the list.
  

Summary

The above are just some commons in scholarship scams. There are still many other scholarship scams around. Always be precaution in any scholarship offer to you and always check for confirmation before any money pay out. The basic guideline is "if you have to pay money to get money, it's probably a scam".