India, Aug. 5 -- Some student loan borrowers were wrongly told that their payments were overdue and their loans were at risk of default. The notices were sent by MOHELA, one of the federal student-loan servicers, to some borrowers in recent days. In reality, the affected borrowers were not actually behind on their payments.

The US Education Department confirmed that the notices were sent by mistake. An Education Department spokesperson told Business Insider that the department knows about an issue affecting "a small number of borrowers at one servicer." The department said the problem has now been fixed.

Borrowers affected by the error will be contacted by email. The Education Department said it will notify borrowers that the delinquenc...