Scholarship scams are more common than you would think. Nothing is worse than taking a reasonable amount of time to spruce up your scholarship application only to find out it is a complete scam and you wasted all that time. Not to mention, you put yourself in jeopardy. Today we will teach you how to avoid some of the most common scholarship scams. If you were to tally the amount parents and students lose each year due to scholarship scams, it would total hundreds of millions. Now, that is a lot of money. Luckily, there are some basic warning signs that you can identify that can prevent you from falling into the scam trap.
The Most Important Thing To Remember
If the scholarship that you are interested in requires you to send in money with the application, do not do it because, most likely, it is a scam. Right now, the only “safe” place to send money with an application to is FAFSA. Any other scholarship offering that requires you to send in cash is a scam.
Here is a list of some of the most common scams out there:
- They are sending money with your application to a scholarship that doesn’t exist. Someone just made a site that looks like it gives away a scholarship, but no scholarship exists. Most people think they didn’t win and think nothing of it.
- Pop Up scholarships are ones you should beware of as well. We have all seen those annoying popups telling us we have won thousands of dollars. There is just one catch; we must send money to trigger the scholarship. SCAM!
- Sometimes you will find a site that guarantees you will win a scholarship. First, it is only possible to ensure a thing like this to some. If you see an area that guarantees they can win you a scholarship, you should find another resource to use.
- The trickiest scholarship scam to identify is the scholarship for profit. They get all their applicants to pay $5 per application, and after they reach a certain amount of applicants, they can afford to pay $1,000 in scholarship money and pocket the rest of the capital.
When it all comes down to it, just be cautious of any scholarship that requires you to pay money. This defeats the point of a scholarship. If you are still determining which scholarships are good, then all you have to do is look around our site as we check each of the offerings here.
