FTC Closes Investigation Into Alleged Deceptive Marketing by 2 Lenders

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Washington — The Federal Trade Commission has dropped an investigation into two student-loan companies accused of deceptive marketing, the agency announced last week in a pair of letters to the lenders.

At issue in the investigation were potentially misleading seals on letters from the two companies, Ed Loan Funding Inc. and Elite Financial Group, seeking to persuade borrowers to consolidate their student loans. The seals were strikingly similar to the logos of the United States government and of the Education Department, creating the impression that the letters were from the federal government.

In its letters to the lenders, the FTC said it had closed its investigation because the companies no longer used the seals in their solicitations for consolidation loans. But the agency reminded the lenders that any letters sent with official-looking seals should include a disclosure that they are not from the federal government.

The commission had undertaken the investigation at the request of the U.S. House of Representatives’ education committee, which has been looking into deceptive marketing practices by student-loan companies.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

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1. Now that's enforcement!

Hey, what you did was wrong, just don't do it again. If you do we'll go through this whole Kabuki dance again.