Misleading GI Bill Site to Shut Down

Misleading GI Bill Site to Shut Down

Military veterans can find GI Bill benefit information on the government-sponsored website.

Good news for military veterans trying to find a college: A prominent marketing site that may have lent more confusion than guidance is being shut down. 

GIBill.com, a marketing website, purports to offer guidance to military vets about financial aid benefits, and appears in Google search results close to the government-sponsored site, GIBill.va.gov. But the marketing site also directed users toward for-profit institutions that were clients of the site operator, QuinStreet Inc., as the only "eligible GI Bill schools," according to a press release from Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, leader of an investigation into the site. 

[Read more about efforts to help vets find the right college.] 

"This company preyed on our veterans who received educational benefits as a result of their military service to our country," Conway said in the press release. "The actions were unconscionable and purposefully drove veterans to for-profit colleges who were perhaps more interested in getting their hands on the federal benefits than in educating our soldiers and their families." 

Conway's investigation led to settlement with QuinStreet Inc., a Foster City, Calif., company that will now pay $2.5 million to affected states. GIBill.com will now redirect to GIBill.va.gov, where future students can investigate their college benefits through government-provided information. GIBill.com's social media arms, including its Twitter and Facebook accounts, will be shut down, among other terms in the consumer protection settlement. 

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