Trust This Email?

Paying for College
1

<p>Whenever I follow this link from an email FAFSA sent me, I get a message from firefox saying that there is a security problem and strongly recommending me to not continue. Should I continue? It's from <a href="mailto:FederalStudentAidFAFSA@cpsemail.ed.gov">FederalStudentAidFAFSA@cpsemail.ed.gov</a></p>

<p>Here is the email:</p>

<p>Your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has been processed and the data will be made available to the school(s) listed on your FAFSA. The financial aid office at your school will contact you if additional information is required.</p>

<p>Your Student Aid Report (SAR), which contains a summary of your FAFSA information, is now available for you online. Review your SAR as soon as possible. There are issues with the information you provided that must be resolved before your application can be processed or before your Financial Aid Administrator can determine if you are eligible for federal student aid. Your SAR will provide specific information about these issues and what you need to do.</p>

<p>You must also confirm the accuracy of the estimated income information you or your parent reported on your FAFSA after you complete your 2009 tax returns. After comparing the information on your FAFSA with the information on your tax return, you must correct any FAFSA information that is not accurate and you must also update FAFSA questions #32 (#79 for parents) to "already completed" to indicate that your information is now based on completed tax returns.</p>

<p>Use the link below to view your SAR. You can select the link or copy the entire link and paste it into the address or location line of your Web browser. Make sure you copy and paste the entire link; it may appear on multiple lines.</p>

<p>[Link deleted]</p>

<p>If you are an AOL user, click here:</p>

<p>[Link deleted]</p>

<p>If you encounter any problems retrieving your SAR, go to FAFSA</a> - Free Application for Federal Student Aid for assistance. You may also call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243).</p>

<p>Thank You,</p>

<p>U.S. Department of Education
Federal Student Aid</p>

2

<p>I received that exact email five hours ago after completing the FAFSA form last night. I continued, logged in (gave my SSN, birthday, and something else I think), and lived.</p>

3

<p>I got the same exact email and the same security warnings. I think it’s totally trustworthy, but just to be on the safe side, rather than following the link I simply went directly to the site and navigated to the SAR link on the home page - it wasn’t difficult to find.</p>

<p>In general, never trust links in emails. Even if you are expecting it, it’s good practice to always open a fresh browser window and navigate to the site on your own.</p>