Doc Help Needs, at best, disingenuous, at worst, a scam!
My wife Erin recently received an official looking letter in the mail from Doc Help Needs, concerning her federal student loan debt, which raised immediate red flags, as Erin’s student loan was forgiven, due to her recent disabled status, the loan amount was grossly wrong, and the “Final Notice” statement.
Anything that states Final Notice should be viewed with skepticism, even more so when you have never received anything from this sender before. Always read the whole letter, what initially might seem legitimate will soon be proven to be a disingenuous marketing mailer, the bottom of the letter reads;
“Doc Help Needs is not affiliated with the government or any of its programs. We offer private, fee-based application assistance to aid consumers in applying for government offered programs. While such programs may be available for free directly by various government agencies, our services are fee-based and focus on application and document preparation. We do not charge fees for access to such programs, only to prepare and counsel application to these programs.”
The above statement keeps them protected as legally they have done nothing wrong. The letter uses deceptive language, giving the impression it’s the federal government sending out the letter, even referring to official government websites, asking you to create an FSA ID. This is concerning in itself, as if they have access to your Federal Student Aid login, they can effectively act as you, and do untold damage.
I’m not at all suggesting Doc Help Needs are looking to sign up for federal aid as you, they just want to charge you a “fee” for filling out the paperwork for you, think of it as Turbo Tax for student loans.
Let’s add a further red flag, does it not seem odd to you that they word it in such a way, asking you to sign up for an FSA ID. Surely, you would already have one if you had a federal student loan?
It’s clear to me that Doc Help Needs is preying on people’s desperation to get out of, or reduce their crippling student loan payments, not knowing these options are available for free.
Doc Help Needs has a Better Business Bureau rating of F and is reported as being a sole proprietorship founded in January 2021, based out of Huntington Beach, CA, with a listed phone number of (866) 229-7211, which is different from the number shown on the letter, that number is (866) 220-0147.
It might be a little strong to call it a scam, but it’s definitely disingenuous and misleading. As always, when I write these blogs, I’m hoping people will search the company name and/or phone numbers and find this post, before losing hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to this company.
Here’s a full scan of the letter, sans our address.
