A Senate committee hearing convened in Washington to explore fraudulent and deceptive marketing practices of for-profit colleges, as investigations reveal that many schools exploit economic hardship and federal funding while lying to prospective students to increase their bottom lines.

According to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office, 15 for-profit colleges were investigated and all were revealed to have been engaged in fraudulent and deceptive practices. A Sacramento law firm has been investigating for-profit colleges since 2007 and, since then, have represented more than 150 students who were defrauded by fraudulent trade schools.

In Sacramento alone over 150 college students have begun fighting back. Students joined forces to file three separate class action lawsuits over the past three years in an attempt to recover their investments and pay back their government guaranteed student loans. The California law firm that filed these suits joins force with a Facebook page and blog dedicated to empowering students with advice on how to avoid deceptive college recruiting efforts.

Have you been contacted by one of these schools? How many people do you know whose good credit has been destroyed due to defaulting on college loans? Probably many. This is quite common. College loans should never be the reason for a bad credit score and prevent you from qualifying for something as simple as a car loan.  Be careful before accruing any kind of debt.