For-profit colleges (at least the large ones) are actively predatory in targeting desperate, uneducated people. Something I learned from the book Weapons of Ma

For-profit colleges (at least the large ones) are actively predatory in targeting desperate, uneducated people. Something I learned from the book Weapons of Math Destruction: there's an entire industry around skimming contact information from poor people to target for certain products. People will spend heavily on AdWords advertising for terms like "apply for food stamps," and have a web page that offers the service of expediting your food stamp application for free. Of course, this website is just a form that takes your info and forwards it to the regular online food stamp application. Maybe it's got better UX, but it's not expediting anything. As part of handling the application, the website operator can save the name, address, and phone number of someone who is highly likely to be poor and desperate. They sell this information to certain companies, predominantly diploma mills and payday loan companies, who will then call these people directly to aggressively market their services. I don't have the book at my fingertips, but if my memory is right, the contact details for one qualified lead sells for like $75.