Scammers rip off students, colleges, government

CAMDEN, New Jersey – Investigators say Ronzell and Stephanie Mitchell are behind bars for their roles in this student loan scheme.

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

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The husband and wife duo submitted multiple applications for federal student loans using a variety of stolen identities they obtained in an ID theft ring.

"They were filing different financial applications with online universities using the victim personal identifiers, name, date of birth, Social Security numbers and under the idea that the victims were enrolling for the classes online," said Botti.

They contacted various universities posing as the students that had been issued the loans.

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

More than 200 people had their identities compromised. The Department of Education lost more than $270,000. And there are more victims.

"There's many layers of victims. There's the colleges and universities targeted in these scams, there is the federal government whose 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.

Ronzell and Stephanie Mitchell pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy of commit mail fraud. Stephanie is serving a 12-year sentence and Ronzell is serving a 2-year sentence.

Some advice from postal inspectors that could deter identity thieves is to check your credit report each year. Everyone is entitled to one free check every year with each of the three credit reporting agencies. The Better Business Bureau of Northeast Florida  recommends the website AnnualCreditReport.com.  It has step-by-step instructions and links to all three credit bureaus.