If you have to pay money to get money, it's probably a scam. Every year students and parents are defrauded by scholarship scams. The information provided will help you how to identify such scholarships scams, how to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent organizations, and how to protect yourself from scholarship scams.
Fraudulent scholarships can take many forms.
If you receive an offer that uses one of the following tactics, be suspicious. Sometimes a scam persists for years before people catch on to it. This scam looks just like a real scholarship program, but requires an application fee. This scam offers you an unusually low-interest educational loan, with the requirement that you pay a fee before you receive the loan. When you pay the money, the promised loan never materializes.