Fake scholarship or financial aid award fee scam — fraudulent email claiming the recipient has been selected for a scholarship, grant, or financial aid award — then directing them to pay a processing, application, or acceptance fee, or to provide their Social Security number and bank routing details to receive the funds — an advance-fee and identity theft fraud exploiting students and families seeking educational funding

Advance-fee and identity theft scam emails claiming the recipient has been selected for a scholarship, grant, bursary, or financial aid award — then directing them to pay a processing fee, acceptance fee, or administrative fee to receive the funds, or to provide their Social Security number and bank routing details for disbursement. Educational funding scams are particularly predatory because they target financially stressed students and families. Key facts: (1) Scholarship and grant scams are among the most consistent advance-fee fraud categories — the FTC estimates Americans lose hundreds of millions annually to scholarship scams; the core mechanics (unsolicited award + fee required to claim) are identical to classic advance-fee fraud applied to the education context; (2) The SSN + bank routing variant is particularly dangerous — collecting a student's SSN alongside bank details enables full identity theft including fraudulent student loan applications, tax return fraud using the student's identity, and new credit account fraud; (3) Fake scholarship scams frequently impersonate real foundations, government agencies (FAFSA/Department of Education), or invent plausible-sounding organizations (e.g., "National Student Scholarship Foundation," "Federal Education Grant Program") — recipients often cannot easily distinguish real from fake; (4) Legitimate scholarships and grants never require an upfront fee of any kind — FAFSA aid is disbursed directly to universities; private scholarships are paid directly to the institution; any scholarship requiring payment to claim is definitionally a scam. Warning signs: unsolicited award notification, processing/acceptance fee required, SSN or bank routing requested by email, urgency about deadline to claim.