Student Debt Vulnerable to Scams

Financial Preparation Services of Irvine, Calif., boasts on its website three glowing testimonials for its debt-relief services for student loans. It quotes Anthony Zwichirowski of California, Dawn Robinson of New Hampshire and a smiling Dean Edelman of Virginia, who says using the company “was the smartest move I have made since graduating.”

One or more of the three ostensibly happy borrowers also appears, with slight variations, on at least 25 other websites of purportedly different companies offering student-loan debt-relief in the last four years, The Wall Street Journal found.

Student debt is soaring—it is now nearly $1.5 trillion— and defaults are at a record. That has been fertile ground for companies that promise to help stretched borrowers by navigating the maze of federal programs that can reduce or forgive debts for those who qualify, such as public-service workers or people on low incomes.

Some companies operate legally, although there is nothing they offer that borrowers can’t get free, regulators say. Other firms are outright scams, or make promises to borrowers that are illegal, regulators and consumer advocates warn.

Financial Preparation Services has submitted claims for federal relief based on fictitious information, according to a former employee. Sales teams within the company also switched regularly to using new corporate names and websites, the former employee said. The company is one of several about which federal regulators are demanding information, according to a bankruptcy court filing.

Many of the websites on which the three testimonials are featured appear to be carbon copies, with only the company’s name changed. A few companies attributed the same quote to different people: Dean Edelman becomes Dean Ederman of California, for ex- ample. Other websites used the same names and photos with different quotes.

Financial Preparation Services didn’t respond to emails requesting comment, and couldn’t be reached by phone at the number listed on its website. The Journal wasn’t able to find Mr. Edelman, Mr. Zwichirowski and Ms. Robinson or ascertain whether they were indeed real people.

A record $89.2 billion of student loans was in default at the end of June, New York Federal Reserve data show. Of the $1.48 trillion outstanding, 11%, or $160 billion, was at least 90 days behind on repayments— and the true rate is likely double that, because only half of the loans are currently in repayment.

“We’ll do the work for you,” Financial Preparation Services says on its website. “No more drowning in a sea of confusing paperwork and processing!” Its fee: $1,195 for document preparation, then $40 a month for almost 20 years—a total of $10,555—according to a 2018 client agreement reviewed by the Journal.

Regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, share oversight of such companies. One issue they face is the sheer number of small firms offering these services, many using several names.

“This is a relatively target-rich environment,” Michelle Grajales, an FTC attorney, said in an interview. “There are unfortunately a lot of companies that still appear to violate the law.” Ms. Grajales didn’t comment on Financial Preparation Services specifically.

The regulator has filed nine civil cases against alleged student- loan debt-relief scams since 2017, involving a total of 77 different companies. Financial Preparation Services isn’t among those companies being sued.

Many of the FTC cases allege that the companies charged upfront fees for debt relief, which is illegal, or engaged in other prohibited practices such as masquerading as being government-approved, or faking information on applications for federal relief.

Stephanie Beger of Moscow Mills, Mo., a former teacher turned paralegal, says Financial Preparation Services promised to help reduce payments on her $109,000 of student loans when she contacted them in October in response to a text message. “I told them I was married, and we have two incomes and no children,” she said.

Ms. Beger signed up. In April, she says she got a notice from the government that a payment was due, and discovered when she called up that Financial Preparation Services had used false information about her to apply for debt relief. “I was told the paperwork said I was a single mother of six,” she said. She said she made clear that she had no idea what the company had submitted.

She complained to the Better Business Bureau. In response, Financial Preparation Services refunded the fees she had paid. The company wrote an online response on the BBB’s website: “We will continue to perfect our process so mistakes do not happen on our clients accounts.”

A report by the Government Accountability Office in June identified “indicators of potential fraud or error” in the income-related student loan relief program, including 40,900 plans that were approved based on family sizes of nine or more.

Salespeople at Financial Preparation Services until recently often submitted claims showing a family size of six or seven to qualify callers for debt relief, without the borrower’s knowledge, a former employee told the Journal. It couldn’t be determined exactly why it changed the practice, but a company email seen by the Journal said that too many of its claims were being rejected.

Financial Preparation Services operates under several different identities, creating new websites every few months, the former employee said.

SOURCE 






Harvard freshman is denied entry to the US at Logan Airport by immigration officials

What the people you associate with think, should normally be a pretty good clue to what you think

A 17-year-old Palestinian student en route to Harvard University to begin his freshman year was denied entry to the United States at Logan Airport last weekend, heightening fears that the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policy is making it harder for international students to come to study.

The student, Ismail Ajjawi, lives in Lebanon and had a valid visa to study in the United States, but upon his arrival at Logan he was questioned by immigration officials and then sent on a flight back home, according to officials with Amideast, an international education nonprofit that administers the Hope Fund scholarship the student received to help him attend Harvard.

Ajjawi was reportedly denied entry over political posts his friends made on social media that were critical of the United States.

The case has drawn anger and concern about the increased scrutiny facing the thousands of international students who flood US campuses, particularly those in the Boston area, every fall.

PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free expression issues, called the decision to send Ajjawi back “perverse.”

“The idea that Ajjawi should be prevented from taking his place at Harvard because of his own political speech would be alarming; that he should be denied this opportunity based on the speech of others is downright lawless,” Summer Lopez, senior director of the organization, said in a statement.

Brian T. O’Neill, a Boston immigration attorney who specializes in customs and border patrol issues, said visa approvals have become more complicated and slow to be processed under the Trump administration.

But he said it isn’t unusual for border officials to more aggressively review the backgrounds of students coming from the Middle East and other political hot spots.

“It’s discriminatory based on coming out of a dangerous area, not because of a religious area,” O’Neill said.

Even if the social media posts were not written by Ajjawi himself, O’Neill said he isn’t surprised that they were flagged.

“They think anything bad or possibly bad, they’re going to err on the side of caution and deny it,” O’Neill said. “I don’t think they went outside their normal procedures on this.”

SOURCE 





This top Australian university is giving women 10 bonus points on their ATAR if they apply for STEM degrees like IT or engineering

The unending bigotry of the Left.  Always favouring one group over another.  Why does it matter which degrees women do? Why can't they be allowed to be different?  The push to make everybody equal is insane.  Women now get more degrees than men anyway

Women who apply for undergraduate degrees in engineering, IT and construction at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) will be given extra points toward their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) as the university aims to boost the number of women in Australia’s STEM sector.

Women who apply for undergrad degrees in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology or apply for the construction degree in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building will get 10 adjustment points on their score, giving them an extra lift up if they are gunning for a spot at the university.

While adjustments won’t change your ATAR, it will change your selection rank when you apply for uni, meaning you stand a chance of getting into one of those STEM courses at UTS if you were just a few points shy.

UTS told Business Insider Australia in an email that in order to be eligible for the adjustment points, applicants “must be a female domestic student who has achieved a minimum ATAR of 69.00 (not including any other adjustment factors) applying through the Universities Admission Centre.” They also have to satisfy all the other application requirements in the course description.

The move is designed to get more women to consider degrees and careers in industries that have been male-dominated for years.

According to UTS, women make up only 13% of the engineering workforce, 28% of IT roles and 11% of positions in the building and construction sector. These stats are even worse when you consider that women make up more than half of all Australian undergraduate students (58%).

Arti Agarwal, Director of UTS Women in Engineering and IT (WiEIT) said there has been little progress in the number of initiatives designed to support more women in engineering, IT and construction. The WiEIT program provides weekly drop-in sessions for students, networking events and a mentoring program that pairs students with industry experts.

“We need our education institutions to encourage girls and women at all levels, and create a stronger ‘pipeline’ to acquire the skills and knowledge to build successful careers in dynamic areas,” she said in a statement.

The NSW Anti-Discrimination Board approved the extra points and the process will be available for the 2020 intake of students.
Keeping women in STEM positions

The Australian Academy of Science, together with the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering developed a ‘Women in STEM Decadal Plan’ to attract and keep women in STEM industries.

Unveiled in April 2019, the plan calls for a “bold” and “sustained” effort across the whole STEM ecosystem to keep women in those industries. And that, of course, includes the education sector.

Justine Romanics, National Manager for Professional Diversity and STEM at Engineers Australia said, “We need to be disruptive – what we have been doing is not working.”

“It’s time to flick the switch. We need to show the benefits that greater diversity will create for everyone – for individuals, for teams, for organisations, for the profession.”

According to the Decadal Plan, the STEM gender gap becomes measurable in high school. In the final year of high school, the report said more young men choose to study advanced and intermediate maths, physics and chemistry compared to young women.

That trend then continues into tertiary education, with women becoming underrepresented in certain STEM courses. According to the report, they account for less than 25% of participants in engineering, computing, physics and astronomy.

Once women finally get into the STEM workforce, they are hampered by systemic barriers such as gender-based discrimination, bullying and harassment and gendered expectations around caring responsibilities.

“All of these issues combine to lead to a significant reduction in the proportion of women at every stage of professional progression in STEM fields, particularly in research and industry,” the report said.

And amid all the challenges women face in the sector, the report said one of the main reasons they choose to leave is lack of career progression.

Jessica Massih, a fifth year Civil and Environmental Engineering student from UTS, said supporting young women into tertiary studies and while they are studying, helps them believe they have a role in the industries.

“Once you are at uni, you have to do the same subjects, same assignments, and work just as hard to get good grades and opportunities,” she said in a statement. “Getting there is just the start.”

So for the young women already working hard to get a spot in engineering, IT or construction degrees at UTS, the extra points will be the icing on the cake.

And hopefully they can stay the course once they’re in.

SOURCE