DEAR JOYCE: I must have landed on an Internet marketing list, because I receive so many e-mails pitching my chances to win a scholarship to an online college. Like: "Hey, mom, apply for a full-tuition scholarship, earn your degree and have a career!" Are these scholarships for real? -- B.R.

A few people will win these scholarships, but the advertised financial-aid awards are really hooks cast by companies in the lead-aggregation industry. They're marketing ploys.

Notice that virtually all the schools offering these scholarships are for-profit colleges. Higher-education experts tell me that on average, online for-profit colleges cost three times more than online nonprofit colleges.

Here' the inside story. Lead-generating marketers require scholarship seekers to provide their personal information on a scholarship application -- in reality, a "lead form." The marketers aggregate the forms and sell them to participating schools at a price of up to $100 per qualified lead. It's little wonder that you're receiving so many scholarship pitches.

The next step happens when scholarship hopefuls are contacted by sales reps under the guise of following up on a "scholarship application."

You know the rest: The marketers aren't matching students to free scholarships; they're collecting and selling leads for educational enrollments. This is the way almost all online college-directory companies work.

Upshot: Hundreds of thousands of people fill out so-called scholarship application forms, hoping to win. Most of them will be rewarded with telephone marketers attempting to enroll them as paying students.

OTHER ONLINE ED ISSUES. Interest is growing in renewed education as a tool to improve job security in a changing economy. That's why would-be learners should be aware of a related development -- the robust return of degree mills.

Degree mills are run by people who hawk worthless degrees and certificates -- such as, "Get a law degree from Harvard by return mail." Today's rash of phony educational documents are mostly being sold online. (Yes, employers usually discover the fakes later, if not immediately, and people do get fired for falsifying their educational backgrounds.) Anyone with the cash qualifies for a degree-mill award. Even pets qualify. Continued...