College students and potential college students seeking financial aid need to be on the lookout for financial aid scams that are occurring across the United States, warns Judy Belanger, UNLV director of student financial services.

"As college costs rise nationwide, more students are turning to financial aid to help pay for their higher educations," Belanger said. "Unfortunately, a number of unscrupulous companies are capitalizing on the situation by charging students to help them find scholarships and then not delivering what they have promised."

Many of the unscrupulous companies advertise heavily to students and present misleading information about their services, she said.

An important first step for anyone considering using a company that appears to offer scholarships is to determine whether the company actually has scholarship money to disseminate or if it merely is in the business of providing students with a list of scholarships for which they can apply, Belanger said.

Most companies and organizations that actually give out scholarships do not charge an application fee, she said.

As for the companies that only provide lists of available scholarships, students considering paying for such a service should know beforehand that information is available free of charge to the student willing to do a little homework, Belanger said.

"University and college financial aid offices, high school counseling offices, and libraries all are excellent sources of that information," she said. "With just a little work, students can come up with the same information those companies want to charge them to provide."

For students who choose to pay the companies to do the work for them, it is important to get the companies' promises in writing so that both parties are clear what is being provided, she said.

Scams in the financial aid area have received a substantial amount of attention across the country in recent months, Belanger said.

She pointed to the involvement of the Federal Trade Commission, which has obtained temporary restraining orders against five companies and has frozen their assets while seeking permanent injunctions against them. Those companies are:

* Career Assistance Planning Inc. of Atlanta
* Christopher Ebere Nwaigwe of Towson, Md.
* Student Assistance Services Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
* College Assistance Services Inc. of Sunrise, Fla.
* Student Aid Incorporated of New York City

For additional information on the do's and don'ts of applying for financial aid, call Belanger at (702) 895-3424.