(U-WIRE) AUSTIN, Texas – When Emmy Moyes Googled “FAFSA” in early January to start the college financial aid process for her son, the U.S. Department of Education’s Web site was not the first to pop up.
Moyes came across a Web site, fafsa.com, which is not associated with the federal government. She said she was looking for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
“After completing the application, I was shocked to discover that they requested a fee of $79.99 for filling out the FAFSA form,” Moyes said.
Moyes said she paid the charge, thinking things may have changed since she was in college, but when she received the Student Aid Report a couple of weeks later, there were many discrepancies in numbers. A supervisor at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov, the federal Web site, told Moyes that the Web site she had used was a scam and advised her to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, she said.
“I even got tricked, and I’m college educated,” she said. “This whole thing has me very pissed off, because if I hadn’t noticed the discrepancies in the first place, I wouldn’t have made the Feb. 15 deadline, and my son wouldn’t have been able to go to Penn State.”
Moyes said the name of the Web site is very misleading, because the acronym implies the application will be free.
Don Singleton, vice president of operations at fafsa.com, said people have confused the Web site for the Department of Education’s but that the site is not intended to trick users.
“We have disclaimers all over our site. We’ll gladly refund people’s money if they were confused, because we want people to be happy and think we have a great service,” Singleton said. “It doesn’t do anybody any good to try and act like the Department of Education.”
Fafsa.com and its sister Web site, fafsa.us, are both companies that help people fill out their federal aid applications for a fee, according to their Web sites.
Singleton said he compares his company’s services with those of a tax preparation service such as H’R Block.
“As far as I can see, we’re the largest FAFSA preparation company in America,” he said. “We’re currently serving more than a 100,000 clients a year.”
Henry Urick, assistant director of UT’s Student Financial Services, told The Daily Texan in 2001 that he had notified financial aid counselors of the similarity between the two Web sites.
Students can seek FAFSA advice through counselors and financial aid advisers, Urick said.
“When we contact students by e-mail, we always refer them to our site,” Urick said. “That’s the best place available for advice, and it’s at the best price — free.”
U.S. Department of Education spokeswoman Jane Glickman said her department has received a few calls from people who had confused the Web sites.
“We just try to make sure that everyone knows that the FAFSA is free. We do get the word out to students,” Glickman said. “People just need to be wise consumers. Be savvy and know what you’re getting.”