Just got a nice eMail from a mom who had purchased my Linda P. Taylor's Insider Secrets to Scoring Scholarships eBook and video system. She said was SHOCKED to learn about the "dirty little secret" about internet scholarships "harvesting" data and reselling it! She had always thought the scams cost money and didn't realize a free site could be a problem! She had also gone to my blog posting about about hidden traps and was really concerned about her son searching for money they desperately needed for college.
I shared with her (and want to share with blog readers) how to fight these NEW wolves in scholarship sheep's clothing! As the market melts down, more and more families are going to the internet looking for scholarships. And I want you to be prepared for the good, the bad and the ugly of FREE scholarship search sites!
In the good old days, a scammer would send you a letter and promised you a list of scholarships and maybe financial aid for a small fee. They "covered" themselves by sending you a virtually useless printed list of scholarships and maybe some free information on how to find and write letters. Most of those wolves were pretty much run out of town by FTC enforcement and by the proliferation of free internet search sites that made them irrelevant.
But the wolves didn't go away. The word "scholarships" is just too juicy as a marketing tool to give up. So they moved to the internet and changed their focus.
What I call the "new wolves" are companies that offer a scholarship or may offer nothing from their pockets but are aggregating everyone else's scholarships into their website. The applicants are asked for large amounts of data so their "search" can be more successful. But what the students don't know is their INFORMATION IS BEING SOLD over and over again to anyone and everyone who pays for it if they don't actively opt-out.
Like the old wolves, the new ones cover themselves legally. They will ask you to opt-out of "third party offers". But most ask applicants to unclick a box that says you have read the Terms and Conditions or the Privacy Statement. They are NOT obvious in what they are going to do with your data if the box stays clicked. I know they will claim it is your responsibility to read these pages and I agree BUT . . .
I DO read these as part of my research on safe sites for my clients like the College Leadership Foundation's College eCoaching Program. Most are in 9-point font, legalese and when they reveal the truth about what they do with your information, it's 5 or six mind-numbing paragraphs down and is fuzzy-wuzzy about what you will allow them to do by not opting-out.
So how do you know the good ones from the bad ones? READ the Terms & Conditions and/or Privacy statements before you hit enter! Sorry, you do need to do that to protect yourselves.
So you can know what to do, here is an example of a GOOD one from www.CollegeSurfing.com's Privacy section. It is in PLAIN English and clear. I have added the color for emphasis.
"As a general practice, we do not sell your personally identifiable information to third parties or mass marketers. However, on particular pages where we ask for your personally identifiable information, we may explicitly tell you that the data we are collecting on that page will be provided to third parties, in which case those disclosures shall override anything to the contrary in this policy. We would also have the right to sell this information as part of a sale of all or substantially all of our assets. [It's that phrase "explicity tell you" that makes them good guys in my opinion! LPT].
In some situations, we provide your personally identifiable information to third-party service providers to enhance or expand the functionality available to you as a user of the Site, but this will only be done when you specifically ask us to by responding to a survey."
Here is an example of one of the a quasi-wolf (in my opinion), www.Scholarships.com.
"We will not share, sell, rent or otherwise transfer this information without the user's permission, and then only in accordance with the terms set forth in this Privacy Policy. Our website provides users the opportunity to unsubscribe (opt-out) from receiving email messages from Scholarships.com and its marketing partners or from having their information shared with our marketing partners. [you have to opt-out - LPT]"
Is Scholarships.com actually providing scholarship searches? Yes. Are they a scam? No. Are they doing anything illegal? No. I don't really have a problem with Scholarships.com selling the names and related information. What I resent is the fact they are not clear about how they "get paid" for offering all these information to applicants for free! I get marketing magazines as part of my job to help clients with their marketing needs. One of them recently featured a FULL PAGE ad that specifically pointed out to interested list buyers all the data they get from the opt-in Scholarships.com eMail list!
And here is the site for that I feel is the worst example of the marketing wolves: ScholarshipExperts. Here's what it says in their Terms & Conditions in small buried print (I added color and bolding for emphasis):
"When You submit a profile or application, ScholarshipExperts.com may access, store, and use all information included therein for any purpose. Additionally, if You provide permission to do so, ScholarshipExperts.com may sell, share, distribute, or disclose to third parties all information You provide, including scholarship providers, educational institutions and others."
So how do you protect yourselves? Follow some of the suggestions in my Scoring Scholarship system! Get a new eMail address JUST for scholarship searches. NEVER give out personal information like Social Security numbers or parent income. And think twice about giving them your telephone numbers. AND PLEASE READ THE TERMS & CONDITIONS and PRIVACY STATEMENTS! And when you see the words 'may sell or share', avoid that site!
Anyone seen their SPAM or junk mail go up after searching for scholarships online? I would like to backtrack with you how that may have happened. Send me a comment on this blog OR go to my website and contact me at www.LindaPTaylor.com.
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