CLEVELAND — It’s not every day you receive a check in the mail that you’re not expecting, from an organization you’re not familiar with. But that’s what happened to one of our viewers.
THE QUESTION
3News viewer Anna Nydza emailed us at verify@wkyc.com with this question: "I received a check from CFPB performance SLC about a federal lawsuit on student loan debt. Is this real or a scam?"
THE SOURCES
To VERIFY whether this is a legitimate check, we reviewed the following:
- Letter sent with the check
- Federalregister.gov
- Court records
- ConsumerFinance.gov
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) official
- Rust Consulting spokesperson
THE RESEARCH
First, we looked at the letter Anna got with this check. The letter claims to be from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). We know this is a government agency that enforces federal consumer financial laws, because it’s listed on FederalRegister.gov.
The letter Anna received says this check is an award from a lawsuit filed by CFPB where the defendants are accused of charging illegal upfront fees for federal student loan debt management services, and deceiving people into signing up for those services.
We went looking for the lawsuit, and found a court order confirming CFPB filed the lawsuit on November 5, 2020 against three defendants. Those defendants include a debt relief business focused on student loan debt called Performance SLC LLC, another company called Performance Settlement LLC, and Daniel Crenshaw, owner and CEO of both of those companies.
On page 9 of that court order, items numbered 21 and 22 confirm the court did order a settlement in this case, that must be paid to the people the lawsuit says were harmed by the defendants.
All of this matches what’s in the letter Anna received, but in the letter we also see what looks like a strange contact email that consumers are asked to contact with questions about this check: performance_info@rustcfpbconsumerprotection.org.
We can see how that might raise some alarms, so we reached out to CFPB, who confirmed that this contact information was provided to people receiving these checks.
When we sent an email to that strange looking address ourselves, we got double confirmation that it’s a consumer help email for Rust Consulting, which is the third party that CFPB contracted with to help handle these payments.
THE ANSWER
So we can VERIFY that the check Anna received from CFPB performance SLC about a federal lawsuit on student loan debt is real.
It’s common for third party firms like Rust Consulting to get hired to help handle payments from lawsuits, and that’s what happened here.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
If you think perhaps you're owed a check related to this settlement but you haven't received one, you can reach out to the email address we verified above: performance_info@rustcfpbconsumerprotection.org.
The checks issued thus far have been for reimbursement for tech support services purchased from the defendants, including reimbursement for unauthorized fees paid minus any already refunded amounts.
In the email you'll need to explain why you believe you're owed money from Performance SLC LLC, Performance Settlement LLC and/or owner and CEO Daniel Crenshaw.
You'll also need to send supporting documents including how much you paid to these companies, along with your name, mailing address, phone number and email address.
You can also mail all of the above information to this address:
CFPB Performance SLC
Third party Administrator – 8377
PO Box 2561
Faribault, MN 55-21-9561.