Biden stu­dent loan for­give­ness promis­es coin­cide with rise in scams

The Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion is warn­ing about scam­mers tar­get­ing peo­ple with promis­es to can­cel their stu­dent loans, and crit­ics say Pres­i­dent Joe Biden fueled the fire him­self.
Biden has been pledg­ing to can­cel stu­dent loans since the 2020 pres­i­den­tial cam­paign and has rolled out a wide range of pro­grams and pro­pos­als toward that end. While his actions so far have affect­ed 4.3 mil­lion of the 44 mil­lion peo­ple with stu­dent debt, his head­line-grab­bing announce­ments have cre­at­ed an expec­ta­tion that scam­mers are eager to exploit.
“Hear­ing a lot about fed­er­al stu­dent loan for­give­ness in the news? You’re not alone — scam­mers are, too,” reads an April 16 release from the FTC. “You might get a call from some­one say­ing they’re affil­i­at­ed with Fed­er­al Stu­dent Aid (FSA) or the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion. They’re not.”
House Edu­ca­tion and the Work­force Com­mit­tee Chair­woman Vir­ginia Foxx (R‑NC) says Biden shares some of the blame.
“The president’s con­tin­ued hawk­ing of his ‘free col­lege’ agen­da is a con­tribut­ing fac­tor to the rise in bad actors look­ing to defraud Amer­i­cans — there’s no ques­tion about it,” Foxx said. “Not only does he bear respon­si­bil­i­ty for this uptick, but he also bears respon­si­bil­i­ty for pin­ning tax­pay­ers with the tab every time he announces a ne …