More and more recent college graduates are being targeted by scammers.

Iowa College Aid and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office has issued a warning about fraudulent organizations claiming to be “loan rescuers” or something similar.

The fraudulent groups are preying on students struggling to pay off debt.

They promise loan forgiveness and assistance, and charge hundreds of dollars in service fees in exchange.

Those so-called fees are then pocketed, and some groups are even stealing student’s identities in the process.

The Associate Director of Financial Aid at St. Ambrose University, Greg Geistkemper, says seeing students targeted by these scams is frustrating.

“We’re seeing it more and more,” said Geistkemper. “For instance I know there are a few students that they said that they get calls three times, four times a week.”

It’s not a secret that a college education comes at a cost. When it’s time to pay up, oftentimes students don’t know where to start.

“You’re typically coming from high school, attending college, and then the first time you’re having to incur any debt is usually college so it can be an overwhelming experience,” said Geistkemper.

Which is why students may be willing to take whatever help they can get, even if it comes with a fee. And it’s those fees that Geistkemper says are a red flag.

“You don’t need a third party service to do that for you,” he said. “You don’t need to pay any money for those types of services.”

Geistkemper says while the may offer some “help,” it’s not a long-term solution.

“They could be helping them kind of half-heartedly, I mean what they’re doing a lot of times is putting student’s loans into deferment or forbearance and that is only kind of a temporary solution to a larger issue,” said Geistkemper.

On Tuesday, several students told Local 4 News that they’re not surprise their peers fall for these scams.

“I mean it is very easy to fall into just because they’re offering to help you,” said sophomore Carson Stych. “you just have to be careful.”

A few students say they leave it to their parents when it comes to making decisions about their student loans.

“But honestly if I didn’t go to my parents and I didn’t ask them about it I would’ve honestly fell for it,” said sophomore Claire Maloney.

Sophomore Chloe Stewart works in the Financial Aid office at St. Ambrose and says while she knows what to services to avoid, she’s not surprised if her peers don’t.

“I think people are just so stressed about everything and they just are like ‘oh, well that’s kind of cool,'” said Stewart.

“I would tell them to go over their FAFSA and student loans and everything with their parents rather than letting parents do it by themselves because then it will give them a better idea of all of that,” Stewart added.

Most of the students who spoke to Local 4 News said when it comes to navigating student loans and what their options are, they feel pretty lost.

“Going in from high school I wish they would’ve talked more about it,” said Stych.

And said they don’t think they would know what to do on their own.

Local 4 News took a closer look at just how easy it is to cross paths with one of these scams. When we searched “student loan help” one of the first options was a scammer, asking $599 to $799 for student loan services.

Which is why Geistkemper says it’s important to know who you can trust.

“In reality the companies that actually will help you won’t solicit through a phone call or a text message or even a mailer, so the best thing to do is just hang up the phone,” he said.

So you don’t walk across that graduation stage and into a trap.

A few red flags to look for to avoid these student loan scams include:

Any direct soliciting such as postal mail, e-mail, calls or texts

Requests for payments in advance

Guaranteed loan forgiveness, especially immediate loan forgiveness

Anyone with questions about their student loans is encouraged to contact their college or university’s financial aid office, or their loan providers directly.

You can also learn more at the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid website.