The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Watch out for phony offers for work-at-home jobs targeting college students

Students at colleges and universities are being targeted by a work-at-home employment scam through emails that appear to be sent from a college or university. The scammers obtain personal information from the student while posing as a college or university representative. They convince students to cash counterfeit checks and send them the money.

“Students who fall victim to this scam could face serious repercussions to their financial stability and credit record,” said Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. “I am urging all students currently enrolled at Florida colleges and universities to take extra precaution when receiving online job offers.”

The scheme involves scammers sending online job advertisements offering college students an administrative position, tricking the student into believing the email is from a college or university representative by using an email address ending in “.edu.” As part of the scheme, the student receives counterfeit checks in the mail, or by email, and is instructed to deposit the checks into a personal checking account. The scammers then direct the student to withdraw the money and make a payment necessary for the job. Often, after the student sends the money, the checks are confirmed to be fraudulent by the bank.

Beware of scams targeting minors

It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Young people and parents need to be aware of online scams targeting minors. Just like adults, scammers target kids through online platforms, such as apps, games, and social networking websites.

Young people are often attractive targets for scammers because they may have unused Social Security numbers, don’t generally check their credit reports, and are used to sharing information online. Scammers may pose as someone else in order to get young online users to voluntarily share information.

“Scammers don’t discriminate,” said Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford. “All users, even young adults, should be cautious about sharing their personal information. If we can help young people recognize these issues now, they can be proactive and protect their personal information, which may be their most valuable asset. The first step is to realize how much of your personal information is already in the  public domain.”

Department of Education’s latest idea for student loan relief is deeply flawed, consumer groups say

A Trump administration rule that denies loan relief to many students cheated by their schools is deeply flawed and should be overturned, Public Citizen and the Project on Predatory Student Lending told a court Tuesday. The groups represent student borrowers in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s new “partial relief” rule.

The rule details how the department will decide whether and how much relief to give borrowers who have demonstrated that they were cheated by the schools they attended. Under the rule, most borrowers whose claims are approved receive only partial or no relief on their student-loan debt.

The lead plaintiff, Sammia Pratt, attended a Corinthian-owned Everest school in Florida for accounting, based on the false promise that she’d be able to transfer credits to the University of Central Florida.

College students are being targeted by coronavirus scams

If you’re a college student, you’re probably not on campus. However, scammers are still trying to find you.

You or your friends may have received an email saying it’s from the Financial Department of your university. It tells you to click on a link to get a message about your covid-19 economic stimulus check – and it needs to be opened through a portal link requiring your university login.

Don’t do it, said Ari Lazarus, consumer education specialist for the Federal Trade Commission, because it’s a phishing scam. If you click to “log in,” you could be giving your user name, password, or other personal information to scammers, while possibly downloading malware onto your device.

How can you spot and avoid scams like these? Lazarus advises before you click on a link or share any of your sensitive information:

Education Department and Betsy DeVos are being sued by student borrower groups for seizing student borrowers’ paychecks during covid-19 pandemic

In a class action lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos, student borrower groups are asking the department to stop garnishing student borrowers’ wages.

Illegal garnishments

The CARES Act prohibits the department from garnishing wages of student borrowers through September 30, 2020. The lawsuit was filed last week on behalf of distressed borrowers whose paychecks continue to be seized in violation of federal law.

“With the President at her side, Secretary DeVos promised in March that she had stopped federal wage garnishments altogether, which is what the CARES Act requires,” said Alex Elson, senior counsel at Student Defense. “The truth is, she keeps on taking wages from the paychecks of Americans struggling to make ends meet. We sued to make her stop.”

FTC bans three defendants from selling student debt relief and telemarketing

Three defendants in a student loan debt relief scheme have been ordered to pay millions to resolve Federal Trade Commission charges that they deceived consumers by promising to reduce or eliminate their student loan debt.

A federal court found that Brian Colombana, Impetus Enterprise Inc., and Fig Tree & Co. deceptively marketed student loan debt relief services, tricked consumers into paying illegal upfront fees, and failed to deliver the promised debt relief.

The court entered judgments against the defendants of nearly $11 million. They’re banned from selling debt relief products and services and telemarketing.

It’s National Consumer Protection Week

This year’s National Consumer Protection Week is March 1-7. It’s an opportunity for consumers to learn about their rights as consumers, help them make well-informed decisions about money, and provide tips to avoid scams.

Here’s some NCPW activities this week:

All week

Follow USAGov (@usagov) on Instagram for quick, shareable consumer tips throughout the week.

Watch “The Impostors: Stealing Money, Damaging Lives,” a two-part webinar hosted by AARP. You’ll learn about the most-reported imposter scams, how to recognize one, and what to do if you think you’ve encountered a scammer.

What you need to do to get ready for a possible COVID-19 outbreak in your community

It was helpful Tuesday when a federal official advised Americans to prepare for a possible coronavirus outbreak where they live.

“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen,” Nancy Messonnier, M.D., director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a New York Times article.

Messonnier said that cities and towns should plan for “social distancing measures,” such as dividing school classes into smaller groups of students or closing schools. Meetings and conferences may have to be canceled, she said. Businesses should arrange for employees to work from home.

What do you need to do to be prepared? One federal official said to get ready in your home like it was a snow storm or hurricane. Recommendations include:

Baby boomers write about family issues, finances, and candy

Last week, I spent days looking through my photo collections for photos for a funeral. It was a huge, huge trip down memory lane. Marriages, kids, divorces, travel, deaths, and more. I feel like I’ve been through an emotional wringer. However, through it all, I had an additional realization, again, that I need to work on getting my photos better organized.

I have 50 notebooks full of photos, and I have about that many more that need to be put in archival sleeves. Also, I could take more photos out of my digital chronological files and put them in the named files so I could have them handy to use.

Anyway, above is one of the photos I found, which is now properly identified.

Meanwhile, my baby boomer blogger friends are busy, too, continuing to write great articles. Topics for this issue of the Best of Boomer Blogs are:

Education Department rule that fails to protect students from fraud challenged by lawsuit

A low-income advocacy group filed a lawsuit Wednesday to invalidate the U.S. Department of Education’s new borrower defense rules, which dump protections from predatory schools and impose standards and hurdles for defrauded students seeking to cancel loans.

The lawsuit was filed by the Project on Predatory Student Lending and Public Citizen Litigation Group on behalf of the New York Legal Assistance Group. The lawsuit challenges borrower defense regulations published in September 2019 that are due to take effect in July 2020.

Federal law states that students can ask to cancel their federal student loans when the schools they attend engage in misconduct or close suddenly. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education issued new rules to protect student borrowers and federal taxpayers. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos attempted to block those rules from going into effect three times – and the groups suing now were successful in having those attempts declared illegal.