Rohit Chopra, the CFPB’s outgoing Student Loan Ombudsman, has sent a letter to Google to alert the company that “student loan debt relief scammers may be targeting student loan borrowers through the company’s search products.”
In his letter, Mr. Chopra describes some of the efforts of federal and state law enforcement agencies to stop such scammers. He states that CFPB’s analysis of Google Trends data suggests struggling borrowers are using certain keywords to search for help. He urges Google to work closely with federal and state agencies to ensure that its search products are not being used by scammers and suggests that Google can provide its users with “greater value from [its] search products” and make it more difficult for scammers to flourish “by more closely monitoring advertising on key search terms and helping to drive traffic towards unbiased sources of information.”