A well-known student loan blogger and self-proclaimed journalist by the name of Drew Cloud is a fake, according to a recent report from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Major news outlets including the Boston Globe, CNBC and The Washington Post quoted the fraudulent contributor before it was discovered that he did not exist.
Cloud, or at least the entity thought to be Cloud, was known for his eye-grabbing articles on the website of The Student Loan Report. Recently, he released a survey that said 20 percent of college students have used student loan money to invest in cryptocurrencies.
The story was then pitched to CNBC, which said it reached out to interview Cloud. According to CNBC, he responded via e-mail that he was traveling, was not available for an interview, and could answer questions via e-mail when he had the chance.
When the questions were sent, CNBC got the same reply.
Shortly after, Cloud vanished from The Student Loan Report website and the bylines from his posts were changed to SLR Editor. All traces of the so-called student loan expert were removed from the site and he stopped responding to interview inquiries.
The Chronicle of Higher Education said it spend more than a week trying to verify Cloud’s existence. Days after his online disappearance, the company that owns The Student Loan Report confirmed the expert did not exist.
Nate Matherson, CEO of LendEDU, a student loan refinancing company that created The Student Loan Report website, revealed in a phone interview with CNBC that Cloud was not a real person. “We made the decision to use a pseudonym two years ago, it was a mistake,” he explained.
“We never disclosed Drew Cloud was a pen name that represented a group of us writing these posts," Matherson said in an apology posted on The Student Loan Report home page. "I really regret that.”
When consulted for advice, Cloud often encouraged people to refinance their loans—which is one of the main services offered by LendEDU.
In his public apology, Matherson said the company worked to keep an editorial wall between The Student Loan Report and LendEDU.com, its main business. “However, there have been nine Student Loan Report articles that mention LendEDU,” he wrote. “We now realize that we should’ve had a disclosure that the sites were owned by the same company.”