Help! Friend fell for a "Get Your Loan Forgiven" (seemingly) scam.

[sharpie]

A friend (believe me, this was NOT me) received in the mail a letter from American Financial Benefits Center offering to help him get his SL payments reduced, forgiven, etc.  For whatever reason, he contacted them.  Does anyone have any experience with this company?  I say it is a ripoff and am very concerned.  He signed ALL the papers, they have his SSN, bank information, EVERYTHING.  He emailed me all the documents after I basically FREAKED out when he told me.  As far as I can tell they are going to charge him about $1500.00 for nothing he couldn't do himself.  He already emailed the salesman and told him never mind, but there is a form in the documents to cancel, and I am going to suggest he fill that out and mail it tomorrow.  Certified, etc. 

Any other suggestions from people who know about this stuff?  I am inclined to suggest he stop payment at the CU, but not sure that would work.  I am rather at my wits end about this (which yes, I do know it's not my problem, but whatever).  He paid all his undergrad loans off in 3 years by working as a missionary in a third world country.  Now grad school, he does this.  It makes no sense to me.  When he was texting me I was honestly thinking, "Who is this and what have you done with my friend?"

[Pat94108]

I checked their BBB rating, which is A-. However,  I wouldn't pay anyone so that they can "help" me to get rid of debt. $1500 is a pretty significant amount of money. All of the loan forgiveness, reduction, lowering plans etc. can be requested on your own to your lender if they offer such option. In addition, there are only a handful of cases where you can have your loan forgiven and again, if you qualify that's something you can request directly to your lender. 

I went on their website and they look legit, that's not even the issue but they seem to be one of these companies that charges people a high amount of money for a service that's basically non-existent. No one needs to go through an agency to have their loan forgiven, reduced, etc. I don't know who's your friend lender but I can request all non-standard payment plans on my lender's website. To me, it's definitely a rip-off. I would try to have the payment stopped through my bank. 

[Luscher]

Most of those companies are not scams, but everything they offer you can be done so waste of money? yes. scam? maybe/maybe not. The previous poster said their BBB is A- so that is pretty good. Keep researching them some more

[Anonymous]

If this company was charging up front $1500 for services, that might be an issue but they are not.  I have a niece that is dealing with outrageous student loans so I contacted them. Anybody who has ever filled out government paperwork knows that there is value to not dealing yourself with all the ridiculous documents they need. I love her but if it was up to her to fill out all those forms, it wouldn't get done.

You can paint your own house or do your own taxes but I don't think it's a "scam" to pay someone who is better at it to do those things for you if that makes sense.