Spot fake SLC repayment, refund and verification scams targeting students and graduates
Last reviewed: 12 May 2026 · ScamSupport research
Why students and recent graduates are heavily targeted
Student Loans Company (SLC) impersonation scams are particularly effective because the target population is younger, often less experienced with scam patterns, and has limited financial cushion. The Student Loans Company manages over £230 billion in outstanding loans across the UK; with millions of customers in repayment or pre-repayment, criminals have a huge addressable market. SLC has issued repeated public warnings, especially in summer (graduation) and autumn (new-cohort registration) when relevant traffic spikes.
Three Student Loan scam variants currently in circulation
From: SLC or Student Loan (spoofed sender ID)
Body: “SLC: You are owed a Student Loan refund of £429.50 due to overpayment in tax year 2024/25. Claim within 7 days at: slc-refund-uk[dot]com”
Red flags:
Real Student Loan refunds are paid automatically into the bank account on file with the Student Loans Company or via HMRC tax adjustment. There’s no “claim within 7 days” window.
Domain check. Real SLC communications use gov.uk or student-loan-repayment.service.gov.uk. Anything-SLC-anything or anything-student-loan-anything ending .com, .uk or .co.uk is a phishing clone.
Urgency framing (“within 7 days”) is engineered to provoke quick action without verification.
The lure is plausible because real student-loan over-repayment refunds do happen — criminals research the genuine mechanic to add credibility.
From: Student Finance (spoofed)
Body: “Student Finance: Your maintenance loan instalment has been suspended due to outstanding verification. Complete at: studentfinance-verify[dot]uk”
Red flags:
Maintenance loan suspensions are managed through your Student Finance account at www.gov.uk/student-finance — never via a third-party verification domain.
Real maintenance-loan instalments are paid in 3 termly tranches; suspension between tranches is unusual and would arrive by letter to your registered address, not by SMS.
The phishing page asks for full name, date of birth, university, course details, address, bank sort code and account number, plus uploaded ID. Identity-theft material for years.
Many campaigns are timed to start of academic year (September-October) when new students are unfamiliar with the legitimate process.
From: HMRC (spoofed) — the variant that targets graduates in repayment
Body: “HMRC: A Student Loan repayment discrepancy of £1,247 has been identified on your record. Resolve now to avoid additional charges: hmrc-studentloan[dot]uk”
Red flags:
HMRC manages Student Loan repayments via PAYE — deducted directly from salary by the employer. Any genuine discrepancy is raised by letter with HMRC reference number and statutory appeal mechanism, not by SMS link.
“Additional charges” is engineered to provoke fear of penalty. Real HMRC penalty letters arrive by post with detailed explanation and 30-day appeal window.
The same scam variant targets self-employed graduates with “Self Assessment Student Loan adjustment” framing — same playbook, different lure.
Domain check. Real HMRC lives under gov.uk. hmrc-studentloan.uk, hmrcstudent.com, gov-uk-student.com are all clones.
How real Student Loans Company communications work
Letters by post are the primary channel for SLC decisions, repayment schedules, and account updates.
Online services are at www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan for repayment queries and www.gov.uk/student-finance for application and maintenance loan queries.
SLC phone enquiries are made through the Student Loans Company on 0300 100 0607 (Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, Sat 8am-4pm).
Repayments happen automatically via PAYE deduction for employees, or via Self Assessment for the self-employed. There is no separate “repayment confirmation” or “refund claim” step via SMS.
What to do if you’ve received a Student Loan scam
Don’t click any link. Loading the page confirms your number is active.
Forward SMS to 7726. The free UK spam-reporting service routes it to your network for blocking.
Forward HMRC-impersonation messages to 60599 (HMRC’s phishing-report number). For non-HMRC SLC-impersonation, email the full SMS/email screenshot to phishing@slc.co.uk.
Verify any genuine query by phoning the Student Loans Company on 0300 100 0607 or signing into your account at www.gov.uk/repaying-your-student-loan.
If you’ve already shared bank details or ID
Call your bank’s fraud line immediately using the number on the back of your card.
Open a free CIFAS Protective Registration at cifas.org.uk. Particularly important for graduates — the next 5-10 years are when fraudulent credit applications would do most damage to your credit score.
Check your credit report at Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.