Students awaiting loans and grants should watch out for scam emails asking for bank details, Student Finance England warns
Students were today warned to beware of scam emails purporting to be about loans and grants, after it emerged that 50 phishing websites targeting young people have been shut down during the last year.
Hundreds of thousands of people are starting university in the coming weeks, and Student Finance England, which processes English students' loans and grants, today urged students to "remain vigilant" and not disclose any personal or bank details in response to email requests that look like they are from either itself or its parent company, the Student Loans Company.
Student Finance England expects to make payments to more than 600,000 students this week, and fraudsters are taking advantage of the timing to target students who are waiting for money to arrive.
Heather Laing, its fraud manager, said: "Students are likely to receive a great deal of correspondence from Student Finance England at this time, with payment schedule letters or letters requesting further information coming through the door."
She added: "Scammers exploit this increased contact from the company, and some students may fall victim to an email request that looks to be from Student Finance England or the Student Loans Company asking for confirmation of bank details. However, we will never ask students to confirm their bank details via email. If they do receive such a request, they should forward it on to us to investigate."
If you receive an email which you suspect is a phishing email purporting to be from the Student Loans Company or Student Finance England, contact security@slc.co.uk
Laing said the organisation monitored the problem closely. "When a student alerts us about phishing sites we shut them down as quickly as we can to protect other students. In the last year we have closed down around 50 phishing sites – double the number we closed down in 2008."
Anyone who has already disclosed their details should get in touch with Student Finance England immediately, and also change their account password as soon as possible.
The National Union of Students is supporting the campaign. It said that if a student's application had been received and processed, enrolling on their course would unlock their student finance, including any grant or loan to which they were entitled. The first lump sum would reach their account in two to three working days.
The NUS said one of the best ways for people to protect themselves was to remove their email address if it was online, or hide it on social networking sites such as Facebook.
* Citizens Advice has produced a podcast aimed at students covering money management and housing rights.