Student loan scam: Husband, wife bank on college students for a quick payday

MILWAUKEE -- Millions of students are banking on loans to get them through college -- but scammers are now banking on those students for a quick payday.

Ronzell and Stephanie Mitchell

Ronzell and Stephanie Mitchell appear happy in a photo on Facebook -- but the husband and wife are behind bars for their roles in a student loan scheme.

"They were filing for student loans with the federal government under the names of various individuals and their identities," Gregory Botti, U.S. postal inspector said.

They submitted multiple applications for federal student loans using a variety of stolen identities, and they obtained an ID theft ring.

"They were filing different financial applications with online universities using the victims' personal identifiers -- name, DOB, Social Security numbers -- and under the offices that the victims were enrolling for the classes online," Botti said.

Student loans scam

Then, they contacted Liberty University and American Public University posing as the students that had been issued the loans.

"The funds were being mailed by the online university to addresses the subjects controlled," Botti said.

More than 200 people had their identities compromised.

The Department of Education lost more than $270,000 -- and there are more victims.

Student loans scam

"There`s many layers of victims. There`s the colleges and universities targeted in these scams. There is the federal government who's often making the payments to people they think are the students, and the student truly applying for financial aid that may not receive what they deserve because of these type of schemes," Botti said.

If you want to deter identity thieves, there's one thing you can do: Check your credit report each year.