The next couple of months is the time of year when everyone is thinking about and planning for their trips back to school. Moms, single moms, college students, community college students, and everyone else who is trying to get an education is adding up the numbers and trying to figure out ways to pay for tuition. Scammers know this and that is why you have to be careful.

You should be especially suspicious of any back to school grants and loans that also use the “Obama” name because there are no “official” programs that carry his name. Yes, he supports everyone getting an education, yes he would like grants and loans to be easy to get, and yes he would like to increase the dollars everyone can qualify for in their quest for quality learning. However, there is nothing that officially has his name attached to it. So, if you see the Obama school grant, the Obama mom’s grant, or anything like that advertised you should do extra research first before you sign up or send in money.

It should also be noted that all United States grants are FREE and you should not have to pay money to get them! If you agree to pay someone to help you understand them or help you figure out which ones to apply for that is your decision but you should know that all grants are free.

Scammers and people who are less than honest know that this is back to school season and it is a good time for them to try to trick people into paying for help and services. Sometimes grants, loans, and scholarships can be very confusing and that is why people will try to take your money and guarantee they will get you one. Make sure you understand that no one can guarantee they will get you financial help and that is especially true for grants and scholarships.

You will see these debt relief grants scams all over the place and they will try to get you to sign up for a free kit or some other information package they will send you for $1.97 shipping or some other small amount. What you won’t see because it is in the “terms and conditions” or just the ‘terms” is that if you don’t call and cancel within 5 or 7 days, you will then be charged anywhere from $49.99 up to $99.99 EVERY MONTH. This is all in the fine print so most people miss it.

Many people have reported that when you do call up to cancel, you are given a hard time or the number phone number doesn’t even work. There might also be additional charges on top of the one I just mentioned. In the end, it becomes a nightmare for many as they scramble to get these charges reversed and stop any future charges from happening.

People are unfamiliar with government grants and so many people erroneously think there are additional Obama government grants just because of the stimulus bill. This has meant the interest in grants have skyrocketed and many people are trying to cash in and profit. Government grant scams have popped up all over and many people are being tricked into signing up and they have no idea they will be charged later until it is too late.

These grant scams all appear to be endorsed by CNN, FOX, MSN and other big news organizations because they include their logo on the ads. However, this is not true and none of these news services have ever, to my knowledge, endorsed any of these scammers.

There is also something just out called Google Money Grants. This is also a scam and this product is not even about grants but they are trying to trick you into thinking the product is endorsed by Google. Google has nothing to do with this Money Grants kit and the kit is just a fake make money online get rich scam anyway.