How to Protect Yourself from For-Profit Fraud

The rise of large for-profit colleges has left a growing group of distressed borrowers in its wake. The crisis arguably peaked in 2015, when a conglomerate called Corinthian abruptly shut down, unenrolling 16,000 students regardless of the status of their degree. They and other shady operators flocked to a pretty simple con: Find students, any students, willing to take out federal student loans, enroll them in a program on hyped-up claims about the degree and cash the Department of Education checks.