Sallie Mae Sells Out Students Safety and American Jobs

[OhioChick]

Monday, March 01, 2010 10:20

Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest student lender, is quietly processing student loans in India and the Philippines. These are student loans, subsidized by American taxpayers to help keep college education affordable.

Sallie Mae routes payments, complaints and applications for these government-subsidized loans — containing sensitive personal and financial information — to processing centers in Bangalore and Pune, India. Calls about collections and loan originations are also passed to centers in India, as well as Baguio, Philippines, prompting complaints like this from student borrowers:

“I just got a bill from Sallie Mae claiming that I must pay, and that I am not enrolled in school currently (an error). I called to get it taken care of and got a guy named ‘adam.’ Adam had a thick accent so I asked if he was from India. He said ‘Yes, I am.’”

After insisting the call be transferred to the United States, the caller told a Sallie Mae representative in the United States: “I told Rick how angry I was that Sallie Mae, a US Government funded company, was outsourcing its call center to India, and that as an American, I was not comfortable talking to a foreigner about my financial information. Rick told me “Well, foreign students don’t like talking to Americans, we are an international company.”

Increased Risk of Identity Theft
Offshore call and processing centers, particularly those in India, are regularly accused of selling personal and financial information. Last week, undercover reporters for the BBC posed as fraudsters and bought the names, addresses and credit card account details of United Kingdom residents outside of Delhi. Symantec Corporation traced the “leak” to an employee of a Bangalore call center. In July, a researcher at an Indian management institute wrote:

“India is widely considered one of the most corrupted countries among the major global economies. It is even behind China, one of its major competitors in the global economy. There is a pressing need for improving transparency, particularly government departments and bribe culture; and security, particularly of intellectual property rights in the country.”

Sallie Mae Wants More Taxpayer Money for Outsourcing

More: http://beforeitsnews.com/story/21311/Sallie_Mae_Sells_Out_Students_Safety_and_American_Jobs.html

[Skittles]

1. disgusting

[inna]

2. self-delete