13 Tips to Avoid Scholarship Scams

In one of our blogs, we have discussed the top scholarships for high school seniors and why it is necessary to apply for one if you want to get into your dream college. While it is true that a lot of private organizations offer a generous amount of money to aid students in their college education, there are also many opportunistic people out there who are involved in a scholarship scam.

Unfortunately, a lot of students these days are more susceptible to these scammers because of how they use technology. They spend a lot of time online and click the bait of scammers who prey upon clueless teens desperate for scholarships. 

The point we’re trying to make here is that we are so used to being online that we may not be as cautious as we used to be when it comes to things like identifying potential online scams.

But in fact, falling victim to an online scam is still a very real danger and one that can cost us everything up to our identity itself.

So here are 13 tips to avoid scholarship scams — online, but also elsewhere!

1. Know the more basic signs of a scholarship scam

The next 8 tips will go into more detail, but we wanted to first provide you with a basic overview of characteristics you can look for to help you identify a scholarship scam.

A scholarship scam may:

• Charge you upfront, or require some form of payment at any point in the process
• Have mandatory seminars — if there is a seminar, it will never be mandatory
• Ask for personal info — your parent’s annual income, your address, and phone number
• Ask for bank account info — your credit card number!
• Be incredibly easy, not all scholarships are difficult but double-check if it seems unbelievably simple.
• Want to put you on a mailing list
• Fail to provide any sort of contact information
• Feature fake “winners” with no credibility, or feature no winners at all
• Offer you money when you haven’t applied to them
• Have unclear rules/requirements
• Have spelling and/or grammar errors

Ways you may be contacted by a scholarship scam:

• Emails
• Phone calls and/or texts
• Mail

Now that you have a good overview of what scholarship scams look and sound like, here’s 8 more tips on how to avoid them!

2. Research the name of the scholarship to see what else comes up

Finding scholarships is easier than you think nowadays, but so are your chances of stumbling into a scam.

Let us put it this way, when you are writing a research paper, it is important to check multiple sources to verify that the same information is shown on every page. Why? Because anyone, anywhere, can put anything online.

Do the same thing with your scholarships. In your scholarship search, if you find a scholarship on one site, type the name into Google and see what else you can find about it.

For example, you want to find out if Chegg is a ripoff, the key thing that you have to do is look for other sites that mention Chegg’s scholarship besides Chegg. 

But if you remember from my article on research papers, good research is not a one-step process. Make sure to check the sites that mention your scholarship to see how reliable they are.

Another example is GivenUs. If you search it in Google, the top result is a Reddit thread stating that it is quite shady and most probably a scam. College Vine also says the same about GivenUs.

Signs of a legitimate scholarship:

• It’s run by a large company or well-respected organization
• You’re able to contact a school and confirm the scholarship’s legitimacy
• It’s competitive — you won’t earn it simply by applying

3. Don’t enter personal or financial information

Because we do make online purchases pretty regularly these days, it can feel more casual for us to enter our financial information into online forms.

The financial website This Is Money offers more advice on how to stay financially safe when online, but additionally, if a scholarship is asking for you to enter an entire form of information asking questions about your parents’ annual income, your annual income, or whatever, beware! Sometimes it can seem like this information is trivial… but it really doesn’t take much for things to go wrong. 

Talented hacker, Pablos Holman shows us in his TED talk how unsecure things like our credit cards and cell phones can be.

4. Don’t outsource your scholarship application

There are companies out there who will offer to write your scholarship applications for you.

First of all, if you don’t write your own scholarship application, you are cheating. 

Consequences of cheating (and being caught) on a scholarship application include:

• Earning a bad reputation with a potentially high esteemed organization
• You will NOT be considered for that scholarship

But there are other consequences that DON’T require you get caught, and the largest is this: You will spend tons of money on a scholarship application that does NOT guarantee you that scholarship, and may or may not ever actually deliver any results after you pay.

Your finances may also be insecure after giving up your credit card information to that site.

5. Watch out for “hook” phrases 

There’s a number of “hook” phrases or clickbait we’ve found that hint at a scholarship is a scam.

Here are some examples we found on Elite Personal Finance:

• “You’ve been selected”
• “Money back guarantee”
• “All you have to do is pay a processing fee.”
• “You can’t get this anywhere else”
• “We’ll do all the work”
• “You have been selected by a national foundation to receive a scholarship”
• “The scholarship has a small fee”

6. Don’t pay money up-front, or at all, ever

Whether it be in “application fees” or to sign up for a site that allows you to search scholarships, you should NEVER have to pay upfront to get scholarships. Likewise, you may be told that you won a scholarship but need to pay some other kind of fee to receive the money — what is that about?

If the organization is asking you to pay for your scholarship in any way, it is a scam. 

7. Look for contact information 

If you come across a scholarship, you should ALWAYS be able to find contact information to ask additional questions you may have about the scholarship.

For example, the Coca Cola Scholarship Foundation lists its contact information at the bottom of the web page. And while you probably didn’t expect a company as big as Coca Cola to scam you, this is something that ALL scholarships should show.

Another good example is Fastweb since they have a dedicated page for their contact address. If you are still doubtful if FastWeb is legit, you can shoot them an email because they have provided a pretty detailed way to contact them. 

8. Listen to your gut

If you feel something is wrong when you go to apply for a scholarship, you’re probably right to feel that way. Even though we are more adjusted to the online world, most of us can still recognize the difference between a potentially spammy site and one that is probably legitimate.

“Sometimes we have a gut feeling about things, and a scholarship might feel too good to be true. If it doesn’t feel right, it could be a scam. Students and families should follow their gut feeling when deciding to apply for a scholarship or not.” – Jessica Velasco, JLV College Counseling

9. Don’t fall for flattery or fluffy titles

You may get an email that says you “have been selected” based on your “academic merit” for a scholarship you didn’t apply for. Don’t fall for these flattering messages that single you out.

First of all: You didn’t apply. That’s a red flag.

We understand that sometimes when we hear compliments like this, they can be distracting. The email may look official enough, and we may feel flattered that we have PERSONALLY been contacted! The truth is that whoever sent that email could care less about your GPA (whatever it is at the moment), they’re interested in your pocketbook.

Remember, ANYONE can post something online. A scholarship you find may be offered by a “Foundation” or a “National” something, but don’t get flustered by these big, official-sounding titles. They could very easily be made up.

Make sure to refer to Tip #2 above and do your research.  

10. Don’t trust limited time offers

Although most scholarships have an application deadline, make sure that your provider is not pressuring you to submit your application in a short period of time. Chances are, you are being pressured because they want to access your personal information and use it for other fraudulent acts. Legitimate scholarship providers just like college admission committee members understand that submitting an application takes time because there are a lot of things you have to work on, especially your scholarship essay. They also know that if you are really interested, they won’t have to pressure you to submit at all.

Below are some of the top scholarships for seniors we know aside from the colleges with the best merit scholarships. Visit their websites and analyze how much time they give to the applicants to submit their requirements:

• Fountainhead Essay Contest
• Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest
• The Coca-Cola Scholars Program Scholarship
• Elks Foundation Scholarship
• Equitable Excellence Scholarship 
• Ronald McDonald House Charities Scholarship
• Niche No Essay Scholarship
• Unigo 10K Scholarship
• Voice of Democracy Scholarship
• Dr. Pepper Tuition Giveaway
• The Gates Scholarship
• Davidson Fellows Scholarship

11. Look for eligibility requirements

In any application process, the first thing that you have to look for is the eligibility requirements to ensure that you are qualified. If your provider cannot show you one, there is a possibility that it is a scholarship scam. Most scholarships set a specific age bracket and a GPA and skill requirements. In case you weren’t asked for any of those, double-check their credibility. Surely, even the most generous benefactors have some sort of criteria to help them choose who is deserving. 

12. Consult your high school guidance counselor

Your high school guidance counselor is a fount of knowledge, in case you didn’t know. Aside from helping you with your everyday troubles at school or giving you advice on how to prepare for the SAT and ACT, they also know a lot of scholarships you can apply for especially in your area. You may also ask them if the providers you have already contacted or the ones who contacted you are legit by double-checking them for you. For instance, you want to check if ScholarshipOwl is legit or if the course hero is legit, you may ask your guidance counselor if she has experienced dealing with those providers before.

Pay them a visit if you have time. Who knows, they might even know a good scholarship that fits your achievements so you won’t find it hard to apply.

13. Search scholarship winners

Another effective way of identifying scholarship scams is by looking at the testimonials of previous winners. You can even do a background check on them. For example, looking at their Linkedin profiles if they have already graduated. If you will be able to contact that scholarship winner to testify that he really received money and it is not a scholarship scam, much better. This may sound too much but once you avoided a scam successfully, you will see that being cautious pays off.

What if I think I may have fallen victim to a scholarship scam?

Many sites offer different options. Here are the ones we think are the most useful:

• Contact the bank that issued your card to request a chargeback
• Invest in an Identity Theft company that can help you determine what damage may have been done
• Report the scam! FinAid offers a number of ways to report a scholarship scam. 

Conclusion

So there you have it. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars waiting for you in scholarships. Don’t lose hundreds of thousands (and potentially your identity) in the process of earning them!

To review, here are our tips to avoid scholarship scams:

1. Know the basic signs of a scholarship scam
2. Research the name of the scholarship to see what else comes up
3. Don’t enter personal or financial information
4. Don’t outsource your scholarship application
5. Watch out for “hook” phrases
6. Don’t pay money upfront, or at all, ever.
7. Look for contact information
8. Listen to your gut
9. Don’t fall for flattery or fluffy titles
10. Don’t trust limited time offers
11. Look for eligibility requirements
12. Consult your high school guidance counselor
13. Search scholarship winners

Has you or someone you know ever been a victim of a scholarship scam? What tips can you add to be safer? Let us know in the comments below!

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Todd VanDuzer

Co-Founder & CEO at Student-Tutor

Hello! My name is Todd. I help students design the life of their dreams by ensuring college, scholarship, and career success! I am a former tutor for seven years, $85,000 scholarship recipient, Huffington Post contributor, lead SAT & ACT course developer, host of a career exploration podcast for teens, and have worked with thousands of students and parents to ensure a brighter future for the next generation. I invite you to join my next webinar to learn how to save thousands + set your teenager up for college, scholarship, and career success!

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