Scams by For-Profit Colleges and Universities
The United States Department of Education, the federal agency that oversees for-profit colleges and universities, has found, time and again, that unscrupulous for-profit colleges and universities knowingly make “substantial misrepresentations” about accreditation and about prospective students’ odds of landing a job in their chosen field. Yet, under the Trump administration, these for-profit colleges and universities have been allowed to continue to scam students, collecting federal aid money in exchange for providing a worthless education.
Students understandably struggle to pay back their student loans because they cannot find the work they were promised. Adding insult to injury, private debt collection companies that collect on this federal student aid debt – companies like Navient – have shown a pattern of abusive collection tactics and faulty accounting, sometimes claiming the balance owed is much higher than what is really owed.
Treinen Law Office represented a group of nursing students in a class action against a college that misrepresented its accreditation. Treinen Law Office has also handled many lawsuits against debt collectors, including collectors of student loan debt, where the debt collector used abusive collection tactics or employed faulty accounting. Until these rip-off for-profit colleges and universities are reined in, and until the private debt collection companies that collect on federal student aid debt are made to act fairly, consumers will continue to be abused and cheated. The lack of effective oversight and regulation means that a consumer’s only hope is often a lawsuit.