Veterans Education Success advocates for military-connected students when independent federal agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) take action against colleges that have defrauded students. Some examples of agency actions are listed here:
Most of VES’ work with law enforcement agencies like the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is confidential. Here is what’s public:
FTC’s Crackdown on Fake Military Websites
VES brought to FTC’s attention fake military websites that pretended to be a place where Americans could join the Armed Forces, but never gave the information to the Armed Forces, instead selling patriotic Americans’ personal information to bad actor colleges that bombarded them with deceptive and aggressive recruiting. Some of the websites even wrongly promoted certain bad actor colleges as endorsed by the military.
- VES’ FOIA request to the US Federal Trade Commission requesting the names of colleges that participated in fake military websites (Nov. 28, 2018)
- 28 Veterans and Military Leaders, led by VES, ask US Federal Trade Commission to release the names of the schools that participated in fake military recruiting websites (Nov. 19, 2018)
- Veterans and Military Leaders, led by VES, ask US Congressional Armed Services Committees to ensure future military recruitment is not disrupted by fraudulent college lead generator companies (Nov. 20, 2018)
- Federal Trade Commission shuts down predatory fake military websites (Sept. 6, 2018)
- Army.Com, Air-Force.com, ArmyEnlist.com, NavyEnlist.com, AirForceEnlist.com, MarinesEnlist.com, NationalGuardEnlist.com, AirGuardEnlist.com, and CoastGuardEnlist.com
FTC’s Crackdown on “Military Friendly Schools”
VES brought to FTC’s attention the problem of a company’s “Military Friendly Schools” scheme, wherein it charged schools for the designation of “Military Friendly Schools” and also sent aggressive and deceptive e-mail solicitations to service-members and veterans on behalf of schools that paid.
- FTC: Announcement on Victory Media, G.I. Jobs, and Military Friendly (Oct. 19, 2017)
- VES Press Release: Veterans Education Success Hails FTC Action Against Fraudulent “Military-Friendly Schools” (Oct. 19, 2017)
- VES Research Report: Misleading Websites and “Lead Generators”: A Case Study: Victory Media’s “Military Friendly Schools” (Aug. 2016 | updated Feb. 2017)
Military Lending Act Under Attack
The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reportedly plans to curtail the enforcement of the Military Lending Act (see National Public Radio: White House Takes Aim at Financial Protections for Military and New York Times: Mulvaney Looks to Weaken Oversight of Military Lending). Veterans and military groups responded:
- Nearly 40 veterans and military service organizations call on the CFPB and US Defense Department to stop the rollback of servicemembers’ rights under the Military Lending Act (Aug. 23, 2018) (here)
- Resubmitted Sept. 5 with additional signatures (here)
- FULL PAGE NEWSPAPER AD nationwide (here)
- Sign the Citizens petition: KeepMilitaryProtections.Org
- Same letter borrowed submitted by a smaller, additional coalition (here)
- US Senators also write to US Defense Department (here)
- US Defense Department response (here)