Beware of the Loan Forgiveness Scam Call

Okay, maybe I’m gullible, but I almost fell for a scam – again. However, I don’t think I’m all that crazy for thinking this one could have been real. I enlisted the help of Michael and Gazelle to get to the bottom of this mysterious voicemail I received.

Last night, an unknown number was calling me and I let it go to voicemail because I don’t like picking up random numbers. I live by the mantra, “If it’s important, they’ll leave a message,” and leave a message they did. I listened to it right away and here is what I heard.

Student loan forgiveness? That caught my attention, and the woman on the other end sounded so pleasant that it couldn’t have been a robot. It was weird, however, that she called at 8 p.m. on a Monday, and I couldn’t remember if I signed up for any type of “forgiveness," so I let it sit in my inbox to play for Michael and Gazelle.

They basically laughed me out of the studio.

“What about that makes you think it’s real?” asked Michael.

To me, the woman sounded genuine and I had heard about student loan forgiveness before, so I knew it was a legitimate thing, but Michael was quick to bring me back to reality and gently inform me that calls like that don’t come out of the blue. After a little more investigating, the truth was revealed.

Listen to the conclusion on Michael and Maddie:

Okay, so it was a scam, but can you blame me for having the smallest inkling that it could possibly be real? The moral of the story here is to look up the unknown phone number right away on Google and see if any red flags pop up, and in the meantime, I’ll try not to be so gullible.