Walking back from the mailbox, you sort through the day's delivery to find junk mail, a guaranteed approved credit card application, and a letter offering help to find money for college. You dump the other wastes-of-trees into the garbage and tear into the envelope promising you assistance in funding your education. A company claims they can guarantee you money for college. They say they can match you with several opportunities for scholarships and find you more money from the federal government.

Your parents are going to be so proud of you. After all, you're taking the initiative to fill out the application and write a check from your own account for $25. This fee will allow the company to start matching your criteria with "all those valuable opportunities out there!" Sealing the envelope, you think to yourself that this is too good to be true (and that the envelope sure tasted badly). Only, the bad taste lingering on your tongue is just a foreshadowing of the scam that just cost you $25!

Many companies have illegally put a price on finding scholarship and financial aid information that is otherwise free and available to the public. It's important to be aware of where your money is coming from and going to! The five-digit dollar total of attending the institution of your choice is scary enough in and of itself these days. Add to that moving away from your parents -- the source of money for any expenses not covered by your part-time job. Throw in the fact that money from the federal government may not begin to cover your expenses for the year. Top it off with the anxiety of getting taken by scammers who pose as scholarship providers and aid-matching services. What do you have left? The cold sweats? A migraine? Anything less than an ulcer may be unavoidable.

In an effort to eliminate scholarship scams (and the hysteria that can ensue), Congress recently approved legislation that allows the government to pursue criminal charges against fraudulent scholarship-search companies. The bill aims to crack down on unethical companies that pose as foundations and promise college scholarships to students for a fee. Federal officials estimate that more than 350,000 students and their families lose over $5 million to scholarship fraud every year -- it's about time action was taken!

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has worked since 1996 to stop fraudulent scholarship search services. As reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education, their actions have been ineffective because the FTC is limited to bringing civil charges against the services. Fraudulent companies were simply given a slap on the hand -- forced to shut down and reimburse their customers. Under the new law, anyone found guilty of scholarship fraud will face penalties equal to those who lie about working for a charitable organization or government agency. They will be given a hefty fine and have to serve some serious jail time.

It can be very much to your advantage to search for scholarships in as many ways as you can. After all, they can assist in keeping you afloat while in school full time. Just be careful.

How To Spot a Scam: Give Them the Legit' Quiz...

On the advice of experts at FastWeb.com on how to spot a scam, we've devised this "Legit' Quiz," just for you. Feel free to use it to help determine a service's scam-ability factor...

1. Is the provider sending you information about opportunities "perfect for you," even before you've ever heard of them and/or contacted them? How can an unsolicited piece of information be at all 'perfect for you'? The company doesn't even know you!

2. Is the service's contact information available to you? If a service doesn't provide a phone number, or it uses a P.O. Box, don't assume it really exists.

3. Is the service claiming that you "can't get this information anywhere else?" Remember: Financial aid information is readily available through your financial aid office on campus, your local library, and the Internet, among other places.

4. What's the fee for? Financial aid information is free. Any service asking for a fee to provide you with "not-available-anywhere-else" scholarship information is a scam. Period.

If you suspect a company's failing the "legit' quiz," report them to the National Fraud Information Center (www.fraud.org); the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org); or the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov).

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