FBI warns of federal student loan forgiveness scams

BleepingComputer reports that the FBI has warned about potential scams targeted at the applicants of the Federal Student Aid program, which could result in the theft of personal and payment information, as well as cash. Threat actors could exploit the Federal Student Aid program, which has just opened for applications on Tuesday, to create fraudulent application form-impersonating websites, facilitate various fraud schemes, and deliver "benefit eligibility" phishing messages, according to the FBI. "Cybercriminals and fraudsters use their schemes to receive payment for services they will not provide or collect victim information they can then use to facilitate a variety of other crimes," said the FBI. Individuals looking to apply for the program have been advised that applications are free and do not require any account logins or any document uploads during its initial phase. Additional information and documents are being sought in the next stage of the process, with the [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] email addresses used to communicate with beneficiaries.