The story here is that I got what I think is a series of scam letters telling me I owe US federal student loans.
I do not owe student loans (thankfully).
However, there is a non-zero chance I am facing an identity theft situation here, so I'm trying to talk to the FSA office about these letters.
This is, of course, really hard to do. But I've fought collections agencies before and everyone involved has picked the wrong person to try and out-bureaucracy.
I ended up making an FSA account -- it accurately still has my FAFSA info from 12+ years ago lol -- and no loans are attached to that.
I also double checked my most recent credit report which I pulled for other reasons a couple months ago, and nothing on the report about student loans.
Next, called the loan servicer number from the FSA website (not from the letters, though I think it does match), talked to a person there, gave them the account number on the letters.
The rep asked if I went to [a university I did not go to], asked if the last four digits of my social were [4 digits that it is not] , and so they were like, "ok I'll remove this address from that account."
Asked that person if I need to report identity theft to the FTC and they assured me I shouldn't need to since the account is a different SSN.
So it sounds like a clerical error. I'm gonna file the letters for now and hope that's it.
I hope your loans get paid and I'm sorry you're dealing with this, person out there with same as my legal first and last name but different middle initial.