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If a business wants to stay in operation, a customer satisfaction policy is a “must.” (If a customer is not satisfied with the service received, they will most likely go elsewhere to get what they need.) Apparently, there is some stiff competition for student loan fraud and an article posted on RockdaleCitizen.com tells about one fraudster went the extra mile for her customers by actually taking online courses for them in an attempt to further her student loan fraud scheme.
The story states that a tip led to the arrest of the woman, who was committing student loan fraud. A search of her home revealed personal identifying information including multiple drivers’ licenses, tax forms and Social Security cards, plus documents listing detailed college course information created by the fraudster. (The course information was from an online institution targeted by the woman.)
During an interview by authorities, the woman admitted to using the Internet to apply for and obtain federal student loans for 30 people that were ineligible because they lacked a General Educational Development (GED) degree or high school diploma. Each participant was charged $650 to take part in the scam, which included the woman actually taking the online courses for the fake students at least until the financial aid check was collected either through her or the student’s bank account or received via mail. (That definitely qualifies for going the extra mile to make her customers happy. I wonder if she learned anything new while taking all of those classes.)
The story states that the Department of Education paid out more than $430,000 in financial aid. A little more than half of that amount was actually sent to the targeted online institution. (That’s a pretty good profit margin.)
The 33-year-old woman was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for her student loan scam. She was also ordered to pay nearly $230,000 in restitution to the Department of Education for mail fraud.
It’s too bad the fraudster didn’t enroll in an online ethics class so she could learn the difference between right and wrong. Although she provided great customer service to her scam participants by doing all of the heavy lifting, her fraudulent business ultimately failed because it was illegal. Suffice to say, neither the scam participants nor the fraudster were satisfied with the outcome of this case. (The only party that got what they wanted was the government. Justice was ultimately served through a prison sentence that ironically will last about the same amount of time required to obtain a college degree.)
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