University students nearly lost £3 million last year due to this fake student finance text

Student Loans Company (SLC) is warning university students after it had to stop £3 million of scams last year from fraudulent texts.

SLC say that as students are receiving their first payment of the academic year, scammers are using a similar text to the one that comes from the company, to defraud university goers of their loans.

The scam is called “smishing”, which is fraud involving text messages and it requires students to click a link to complete a task, for example verifying bank details or confirming their personal information, and providing an opportunity for a payment to be diverted to a scammer’s bank account.

via Student Loans Company

What is the scam?

The student loan scam comes in the form of a text, which says there has been a change to the students’ details on the student finance website, and that you must click on the link and verify your details.

Once you’ve filled in your details, the scammers are then able to remove money from your account but in other similar student loans scams, they ask you to transfer money to a different account.

SLC company, who is expecting to pay out £2 billion for the upcoming semester, says it would never ask students to do this via email or text message.

Alan Balanowski, Risk Director at SLC, is urging students to pay attention to any communication they receive from Student Finance England (SFE) or SLC over the coming weeks.

He said: “Starting or returning to university is an exciting time, but it’s also busy, with students getting organised and set-up for the academic year, which includes dealing with information from different organisations, including ourselves.

Most Read

Love Island finalist Ron Hall has a new girlfriend – and it’s an Islander he was in the villa with!

Nathan breaks silence on MAFS UK split and reveals Lacey left him ‘heartbroken’

Omg, one of the MAFS UK couples has ‘secretly reunited’ to ‘give relationship another go’

“We aim to ensure our payment process is simple for students, but we do experience a rise in smishing scams at this time year. This means students need to be alert to any potential attempt to intercept their maintenance loan instalment.

Here’s how to avoid it

Alan explained what students should do if they receive a text which they presume is smishing: “We have a range of preventive methods we use to target scams, but the most impactful tool we have is working together with students to stop scammers. If a student receives a suspicious message, they should delete it and report it immediately, but if a scammer does succeed in obtaining personal details, then we must collectively act quickly to spot and block the action.”

He hopes that effective warnings from SLC will prevent students being scammed in future: “Last year, we were able to stop £2.9m of maintenance loan payments ending up in the hands of scammers and we are focused on working as effectively as we can to protect students and their finance.

“Our message to students is quite simply, think before you click.”

SLC also wanted to emphasise that the student loan scam does not communicate with students via social media platforms, including Instagram, Whatsapp, TikTok, Facebook, or X. It also urges students to check the grammar and punctuation in the texts, as this can be a clear giveaway of its authenticity.

Additionally, SLC always uses official telephone numbers, so if the text came from a mobile number, it definitely won’t be legit.

For more like this look at this student loan scam and for all the latest news, drops, and memes, like The Tab on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Even without student loans, graduates face twice as much debt as those who didn’t go to uni

• Students who fail GCSE maths or English could be banned from getting student loans

• Feeling down on your luck? These are the easiest unis to get into in 2024

Feature image via Student Loans Company