About 7 years ago, I wanted to take some online classes with a community college to get a few credits I needed at another institution. I enrolled in classes, but then changed my mind and never paid the tuition.
I assumed, like most colleges, I would just be de-enrolled before the semester started. Instead, they kept me in and sold my info to a collection agency!
I never gave them my credit card number or checking account info, but they had my contact info and social security number. They hounded me for months and made all sorts of fancy threats. But luckily they never seemed to be able to add an entry on my credit report. I dropped it because I was hoping that it was just an oversight and didn't want to fight it, but maybe they wouldn't have been able to prove I purchased anything anyway.
I can't believe that if someone knows just your SSN only, they can put you on the hook for massive amounts of debt. I only gave them a temporary address not associated with me, and clicked through an EULA. I honestly assumed that I had not yet committed to going into debt, just by creating an account.
And this is a state-endowed community college.
Do these seem like reasonable terms? [1]
- By Registering for classes at SUNY Broome Community
College, I acknowledge and agree to:
- Pay prompty all charges owned to SUNY Broome Community
College.
- Take responsibility for all costs of collecting unpaid
charges, including but not limited to collection agency
fees, attorney fees, and court costs.
- Permit SUNY Broome and/or its agents to contact
me using any method available including but not
limited to the use of email, text and automated dialer
systems; also any information furnished to SUNY Broome
Community Colege may be used to contact me including my
cell phone number, home number or work number.
(Sorry, don't know how to format a bullet list with long lines)
As soon as you enroll in classes, you're on the hook for $4500 + fees?
I could understand maybe not refunding certain fees, but I have never heard of a college that just advances you that much money immediately, and then tries collecting on it.
So some 17 year old could just sign up for classes, without ever confirming anything or giving any payment info, and they are instantly in debt for over $5000?
This was NOT a student loan I signed up for.
No entry was made on NSLDS, and the government never got involved.
And no pull was made on my credit report.
As far as I can tell, they seemed to just be accepting anyone who enters a social security number to sign up for classes, and then selling it directly to a collection agency.
If I ever admitted to the collection agency that I was in debt, maybe that would have been enough for them to actually amend my credit report. It seemed strange that they were willing to talk to me for hours, but I think they were just trying to get enough info out of me and convince me to more explicitly admit that I owed them money.
I imagine that if someone knows your SSN and wanted to harass you, Broome Community College would be very useful for that.
So, yeah, there are some scammers out there you might not expect. And I can see how all of that extra info I gave them could have been used to collect on a very dubious "debt".
I also one time had a Blue Apron sales person at my campus give me a free month of service, with no credit card required. After the first month, this company called me and said they needed me to update my credit card info, but I never gave them a credit card.
After looking into it, it turned out that the salesman had given them a temporary credit card in my name so that he could get the referral fee. Luckily all I got was a free month of meals when he scammed the company. But the one-time email at my vanity domain that I gave the salesman started getting phishing emails. But I'm pretty sure the salesman had permission from the college to solicit to students.
[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20190221153507/http://www2.sunyb...