Company claims it can erase your student debt at DUO

A shady website claims they can delete students’ debt from the systems of Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (Education Executive Agency, DUO). This is reported in today’s issue of the daily de Telegraaf.

More about student debts

• 38,000 Rotterdam inhabitants have student debt
• ‘Soon a committee year will only be for a small elite’
• Concealing student loan to get a mortgage about to become more difficult
• ‘Students with student loans suffer greater anxiety and pressure to perform’

According to the company’s proposal, former students can have their debt erased from DUO’s systems – for a tidy sum, of course. The company charges 10 percent of the total debt and could supposedly get the job done in a matter of days.

So is this legal? “What do you think? No, our services are absolutely not legal,” write the self-styled fixers on their FAQ page. “Nevertheless, we’ve been around for over 15 years, and our client base is still growing!”

Diplomas for sale

Those interested could also buy diplomas for a few hundred euros. What’s more: they’re supposedly registered at DUO. The criminals draw the line when it comes to healthcare degrees, though: “Would you feel okay being treated by a doctor who bought a diploma from us? No!”

The website was discovered by MP Harry van de Molen (CDA), who was amazed by its brazenness. “We didn’t have the time to look into it ourselves, so I tipped off a journalist.”

Van de Molen wants the Minister to find out what’s going on. “Personally, I think it’s a simple case of con artists taking advantage of gullible students. But it still needs to be looked into, of course.”

Criminal offence

“The activities on this site are a criminal offence and undesirable. As always in such cases, DUO will be filing a report with the police,” says a DUO spokesperson. Nothing points to a breach in the agency’s security.

De Telegraaf has spoken briefly with the people behind the site. They claimed they don’t hack into DUO’s system. So maybe they have a mole on the inside, suggested the morning paper in its headline. But the service could also be a complete fantasy, with ‘customers’ getting conned out of their money with nothing to show for it.