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Fast Company
13 hours ago
- Fast Company
How scammers are using AI to steal financial aid
It was an unusual question coming from a police officer. Heather Brady was napping at home in San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon when the officer knocked on her door to ask: Had she applied to Arizona Western College? She had not, and as the officer suspected, somebody else had applied to Arizona community colleges in her name to scam the government into paying out financial aid money. When she checked her student loan servicer account, Brady saw the scammers hadn't stopped there. A loan for over $9,000 had been paid out in her name—but to another person—for coursework at a California college. 'I just can't imagine how many people this is happening to that have no idea,' Brady said. The rise of artificial intelligence and the popularity of online classes have led to an explosion of financial aid fraud. Fake college enrollments have been surging as crime rings deploy 'ghost students'— chatbots that join online classrooms and stay just long enough to collect a financial aid check. In some cases, professors discover almost no one in their class is real. Students get locked out of the classes they need to graduate as bots push courses over their enrollment limits. And victims of identity theft who discover loans fraudulently taken out in their names must go through months of calling colleges, the Federal Student Aid office and loan servicers to try to get the debt erased. On Friday, the U.S. Education Department introduced a temporary rule requiring students to show colleges a government-issued ID to prove their identity. It will apply only to first-time applicants for federal student aid for the summer term, affecting some 125,000 borrowers. The agency said it is developing more advanced screening for the fall. 'The rate of fraud through stolen identities has reached a level that imperils the federal student aid program,' the department said in its guidance to colleges. Public colleges have lost millions of dollars to fraud An Associated Press analysis of fraud reports obtained through a public records request shows California colleges in 2024 reported 1.2 million fraudulent applications, which resulted in 223,000 suspected fake enrollments. Other states are affected by the same problem, but with 116 community colleges, California is a particularly large target. Criminals stole at least $11.1 million in federal, state and local financial aid from California community colleges last year that could not be recovered, according to the reports. Colleges typically receive a portion of the loans intended for tuition, with the balance going directly to students for other expenses. Community colleges are targeted in part because their lower tuition means larger percentages of grants and loans go to borrowers. Scammers frequently use AI chatbots to carry out the fraud, targeting courses that are online and allow students to watch lectures and complete coursework on their own time. In January, Wayne Chaw started getting emails about a class he never signed up for at De Anza Community College, where he had taken coding classes a decade earlier. Identity thieves had obtained his Social Security number and collected $1,395 in financial aid in his name. The energy management class required students to submit a homework assignment to prove they were real. But someone wrote submissions impersonating Chaw, likely using a chatbot. 'This person is typing as me, saying my first and last name. . . . It's very freaky when I saw that,' said Chaw. The fraud involved a grant, not loans, so Chaw himself did not lose money. He called the Social Security Administration to report the identity theft, but after five hours on hold, he never got through to a person. As the Trump administration moves to dismantle the Education Department, federal cuts may make it harder to catch criminals and help victims of identity theft. In March, the Trump administration fired more than 300 people from the Federal Student Aid office, and the department's Office of Inspector General, which investigates fraud, has lost more than 20% of its staff through attrition and retirements since October. 'I'm just nervous that I'm going to be stuck with this,' Brady said. 'The agency is going to be so broken down and disintegrated that I won't be able to do anything, and I'm just going to be stuck with those $9,000' in loans. Criminal cases around the country offer a glimpse of the schemes' pervasiveness. In the past year, investigators indicted a man accused of leading a Texas fraud ring that used stolen identities to pursue $1.5 million in student aid. Another person in Texas pleaded guilty to using the names of prison inmates to apply for over $650,000 in student aid at colleges across the South and Southwest. And a person in New York recently pleaded guilty to a $450,000 student aid scam that lasted a decade. Identify fraud victims who never attended college are hit with student debt Brittnee Nelson of Shreveport, Louisiana, was bringing her daughter to day care two years ago when she received a notification that her credit score had dropped 27 points. Loans had been taken out in her name for colleges in California and Louisiana, she discovered. She canceled one before it was paid out, but it was too late to stop a loan of over $5,000 for Delgado Community College in New Orleans. Nelson runs her own housecleaning business and didn't go to college. She already was signed up for identity theft protection and carefully monitored her credit. Still, her debt almost went into collections before the loan was put in forbearance. She recently got the loans taken off her record after two years of effort. 'It's like if someone came into your house and robbed you,' she said. The federal government's efforts to verify borrowers' identity could help, she said. 'If they can make these hurdles a little bit harder and have these verifications more provable, I think that's really, really, really going to protect people in the long run,' she said. Delgado spokesperson Barbara Waiters said responsibility for approving loans ultimately lies with federal agencies. 'This is an unfortunate and serious matter, but it is not the direct or indirect result of Delgado's internal processes,' Waiters said. In San Francisco, the loans taken out in Brady's name are in a grace period, but still on the books. That has not been her only challenge. A few months ago, she was laid off from her job and decided to sign up for a class at City College San Francisco to help her career. But all the classes were full. After a few weeks, Brady finally was able to sign up for a class. The professor apologized for the delay in spots opening up: The college has been struggling with fraudulent applications. The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
CTV News
14 hours ago
- CTV News
Scammers are using AI to enrol fake students in online classes, then steal college financial aid
Brittnee Nelson, who runs her own housecleaning business, poses for a portrait in her neighborhood in Shreveport, La., Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jill Pickett) It was an unusual question coming from a police officer. Heather Brady was napping at home in San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon when the officer knocked on her door to ask: Had she applied to Arizona Western College? She had not, and as the officer suspected, somebody else had applied to Arizona community colleges in her name to scam the government into paying out financial aid money. When she checked her student loan servicer account, Brady saw the scammers hadn't stopped there. A loan for over US$9,000 had been paid out in her name — but to another person — for coursework at a California college. 'I just can't imagine how many people this is happening to that have no idea,' Brady said. The rise of artificial intelligence and the popularity of online classes have led to an explosion of financial aid fraud. Fake college enrolments have been surging as crime rings deploy 'ghost students' — chatbots that join online classrooms and stay just long enough to collect a financial aid check. In some cases, professors discover almost no one in their class is real. Students get locked out of the classes they need to graduate as bots push courses over their enrolment limits. And victims of identity theft who discover loans fraudulently taken out in their names must go through months of calling colleges, the Federal Student Aid office and loan servicers to try to get the debt erased. On Friday, the U.S. Education Department introduced a temporary rule requiring students to show colleges a government-issued ID to prove their identity. It will apply only to first-time applicants for federal student aid for the summer term, affecting some 125,000 borrowers. The agency said it is developing more advanced screening for the fall. 'The rate of fraud through stolen identities has reached a level that imperils the federal student aid program,' the department said in its guidance to colleges. Public colleges have lost millions of dollars to fraud An Associated Press analysis of fraud reports obtained through a public records request shows California colleges in 2024 reported 1.2 million fraudulent applications, which resulted in 223,000 suspected fake enrolments. Other states are affected by the same problem, but with 116 community colleges, California is a particularly large target. Criminals stole at least $11.1 million in federal, state and local financial aid from California community colleges last year that could not be recovered, according to the reports. Colleges typically receive a portion of the loans intended for tuition, with the balance going directly to students for other expenses. Community colleges are targeted in part because their lower tuition means larger percentages of grants and loans go to borrowers. Scammers frequently use AI chatbots to carry out the fraud, targeting courses that are online and allow students to watch lectures and complete coursework on their own time. In January, Wayne Chaw started getting emails about a class he never signed up for at De Anza Community College, where he had taken coding classes a decade earlier. Identity thieves had obtained his Social Security number and collected $1,395 in financial aid in his name. The energy management class required students to submit a homework assignment to prove they were real. But someone wrote submissions impersonating Chaw, likely using a chatbot. 'This person is typing as me, saying my first and last name. ... It's very freaky when I saw that,' said Chaw. The fraud involved a grant, not loans, so Chaw himself did not lose money. He called the Social Security Administration to report the identity theft, but after five hours on hold, he never got through to a person. As the Trump administration moves to dismantle the Education Department, federal cuts may make it harder to catch criminals and help victims of identity theft. In March, the Trump administration fired more than 300 people from the Federal Student Aid office, and the department's Office of Inspector General, which investigates fraud, has lost more than 20 per cent of its staff through attrition and retirements since October. 'I'm just nervous that I'm going to be stuck with this,' Brady said. 'The agency is going to be so broken down and disintegrated that I won't be able to do anything, and I'm just going to be stuck with those $9,000' in loans. Criminal cases around the country offer a glimpse of the schemes' pervasiveness. In the past year, investigators indicted a man accused of leading a Texas fraud ring that used stolen identities to pursue $1.5 million in student aid. Another person in Texas pleaded guilty to using the names of prison inmates to apply for over $650,000 in student aid at colleges across the South and Southwest. And a person in New York recently pleaded guilty to a $450,000 student aid scam that lasted a decade. Identify fraud victims who never attended college are hit with student debt Brittnee Nelson of Shreveport, Louisiana, was bringing her daughter to day care two years ago when she received a notification that her credit score had dropped 27 points. Loans had been taken out in her name for colleges in California and Louisiana, she discovered. She canceled one before it was paid out, but it was too late to stop a loan of over $5,000 for Delgado Community College in New Orleans. Nelson runs her own housecleaning business and didn't go to college. She already was signed up for identity theft protection and carefully monitored her credit. Still, her debt almost went into collections before the loan was put in forbearance. She recently got the loans taken off her record after two years of effort. 'It's like if someone came into your house and robbed you,' she said. The federal government's efforts to verify borrowers' identity could help, she said. 'If they can make these hurdles a little bit harder and have these verifications more provable, I think that's really, really, really going to protect people in the long run,' she said. Delgado spokesperson Barbara Waiters said responsibility for approving loans ultimately lies with federal agencies. 'This is an unfortunate and serious matter, but it is not the direct or indirect result of Delgado's internal processes,' Waiters said. In San Francisco, the loans taken out in Brady's name are in a grace period, but still on the books. That has not been her only challenge. A few months ago, she was laid off from her job and decided to sign up for a class at City College San Francisco to help her career. But all the classes were full. After a few weeks, Brady finally was able to sign up for a class. The professor apologized for the delay in spots opening up: The college has been struggling with fraudulent applications. ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at Sharon Lurye, The Associated Press
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Scammers are using AI to enroll fake students in online classes, then steal college financial aid
It was an unusual question coming from a police officer. Heather Brady was napping at home in San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon when the officer knocked on her door to ask: Had she applied to Arizona Western College? She had not, and as the officer suspected, somebody else had applied to Arizona community colleges in her name to scam the government into paying out financial aid money. When she checked her student loan servicer account, Brady saw the scammers hadn't stopped there. A loan for over $9,000 had been paid out in her name — but to another person — for coursework at a California college. 'I just can't imagine how many people this is happening to that have no idea,' Brady said. The rise of artificial intelligence and the popularity of online classes have led to an explosion of financial aid fraud. Fake college enrollments have been surging as crime rings deploy 'ghost students' — chatbots that join online classrooms and stay just long enough to collect a financial aid check. In some cases, professors discover almost no one in their class is real. Students get locked out of the classes they need to graduate as bots push courses over their enrollment limits. And victims of identity theft who discover loans fraudulently taken out in their names must go through months of calling colleges, the Federal Student Aid office and loan servicers to try to get the debt erased. On Friday, the U.S. Education Department introduced a temporary rule requiring students to show colleges a government-issued ID to prove their identity. It will apply only to first-time applicants for federal student aid for the summer term, affecting some 125,000 borrowers. The agency said it is developing more advanced screening for the fall. 'The rate of fraud through stolen identities has reached a level that imperils the federal student aid program,' the department said in its guidance to colleges. Public colleges have lost millions of dollars to fraud An Associated Press analysis of fraud reports obtained through a public records request shows California colleges in 2024 reported 1.2 million fraudulent applications, which resulted in 223,000 suspected fake enrollments. Other states are affected by the same problem, but with 116 community colleges, California is a particularly large target. Criminals stole at least $11.1 million in federal, state and local financial aid from California community colleges last year that could not be recovered, according to the reports. Colleges typically receive a portion of the loans intended for tuition, with the balance going directly to students for other expenses. Community colleges are targeted in part because their lower tuition means larger percentages of grants and loans go to borrowers. Scammers frequently use AI chatbots to carry out the fraud, targeting courses that are online and allow students to watch lectures and complete coursework on their own time. In January, Wayne Chaw started getting emails about a class he never signed up for at De Anza Community College, where he had taken coding classes a decade earlier. Identity thieves had obtained his Social Security number and collected $1,395 in financial aid in his name. The energy management class required students to submit a homework assignment to prove they were real. But someone wrote submissions impersonating Chaw, likely using a chatbot. 'This person is typing as me, saying my first and last name. ... It's very freaky when I saw that,' said Chaw. The fraud involved a grant, not loans, so Chaw himself did not lose money. He called the Social Security Administration to report the identity theft, but after five hours on hold, he never got through to a person. As the Trump administration moves to dismantle the Education Department, federal cuts may make it harder to catch criminals and help victims of identity theft. In March, the Trump administration fired more than 300 people from the Federal Student Aid office, and the department's Office of Inspector General, which investigates fraud, has lost more than 20% of its staff through attrition and retirements since October. 'I'm just nervous that I'm going to be stuck with this,' Brady said. 'The agency is going to be so broken down and disintegrated that I won't be able to do anything, and I'm just going to be stuck with those $9,000' in loans. Criminal cases around the country offer a glimpse of the schemes' pervasiveness. In the past year, investigators indicted a man accused of leading a Texas fraud ring that used stolen identities to pursue $1.5 million in student aid. Another person in Texas pleaded guilty to using the names of prison inmates to apply for over $650,000 in student aid at colleges across the South and Southwest. And a person in New York recently pleaded guilty to a $450,000 student aid scam that lasted a decade. Identify fraud victims who never attended college are hit with student debt Brittnee Nelson of Shreveport, Louisiana, was bringing her daughter to day care two years ago when she received a notification that her credit score had dropped 27 points. Loans had been taken out in her name for colleges in California and Louisiana, she discovered. She canceled one before it was paid out, but it was too late to stop a loan of over $5,000 for Delgado Community College in New Orleans. Nelson runs her own housecleaning business and didn't go to college. She already was signed up for identity theft protection and carefully monitored her credit. Still, her debt almost went into collections before the loan was put in forbearance. She recently got the loans taken off her record after two years of effort. 'It's like if someone came into your house and robbed you,' she said. The federal government's efforts to verify borrowers' identity could help, she said. 'If they can make these hurdles a little bit harder and have these verifications more provable, I think that's really, really, really going to protect people in the long run,' she said. Delgado spokesperson Barbara Waiters said responsibility for approving loans ultimately lies with federal agencies. 'This is an unfortunate and serious matter, but it is not the direct or indirect result of Delgado's internal processes,' Waiters said. In San Francisco, the loans taken out in Brady's name are in a grace period, but still on the books. That has not been her only challenge. A few months ago, she was laid off from her job and decided to sign up for a class at City College San Francisco to help her career. But all the classes were full. After a few weeks, Brady finally was able to sign up for a class. The professor apologized for the delay in spots opening up: The college has been struggling with fraudulent applications. ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Associated Press
a day ago
- Associated Press
Scammers are using AI to enroll fake students in online classes, then steal college financial aid
It was an unusual question coming from a police officer. Heather Brady was napping at home in San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon when the officer knocked on her door to ask: Had she applied to Arizona Western College? She had not, and as the officer suspected, somebody else had applied to Arizona community colleges in her name to scam the government into paying out financial aid money. When she checked her student loan servicer account, Brady saw the scammers hadn't stopped there. A loan for over $9,000 had been paid out in her name — but to another person — for coursework at a California college. 'I just can't imagine how many people this is happening to that have no idea,' Brady said. The rise of artificial intelligence and the popularity of online classes have led to an explosion of financial aid fraud. Fake college enrollments have been surging as crime rings deploy 'ghost students' — chatbots that join online classrooms and stay just long enough to collect a financial aid check. In some cases, professors discover almost no one in their class is real. Students get locked out of the classes they need to graduate as bots push courses over their enrollment limits. And victims of identity theft who discover loans fraudulently taken out in their names must go through months of calling colleges, the Federal Student Aid office and loan servicers to try to get the debt erased. On Friday, the U.S. Education Department introduced a temporary rule requiring students to show colleges a government-issued ID to prove their identity. It will apply only to first-time applicants for federal student aid for the summer term, affecting some 125,000 borrowers. The agency said it is developing more advanced screening for the fall. 'The rate of fraud through stolen identities has reached a level that imperils the federal student aid program,' the department said in its guidance to colleges. Public colleges have lost millions of dollars to fraud An Associated Press analysis of fraud reports obtained through a public records request shows California colleges in 2024 reported 1.2 million fraudulent applications, which resulted in 223,000 suspected fake enrollments. Other states are affected by the same problem, but with 116 community colleges, California is a particularly large target. Criminals stole at least $11.1 million in federal, state and local financial aid from California community colleges last year that could not be recovered, according to the reports. Colleges typically receive a portion of the loans intended for tuition, with the balance going directly to students for other expenses. Community colleges are targeted in part because their lower tuition means larger percentages of grants and loans go to borrowers. Scammers frequently use AI chatbots to carry out the fraud, targeting courses that are online and allow students to watch lectures and complete coursework on their own time. In January, Wayne Chaw started getting emails about a class he never signed up for at De Anza Community College, where he had taken coding classes a decade earlier. Identity thieves had obtained his Social Security number and collected $1,395 in financial aid in his name. The energy management class required students to submit a homework assignment to prove they were real. But someone wrote submissions impersonating Chaw, likely using a chatbot. 'This person is typing as me, saying my first and last name. ... It's very freaky when I saw that,' said Chaw. The fraud involved a grant, not loans, so Chaw himself did not lose money. He called the Social Security Administration to report the identity theft, but after five hours on hold, he never got through to a person. As the Trump administration moves to dismantle the Education Department, federal cuts may make it harder to catch criminals and help victims of identity theft. In March, the Trump administration fired more than 300 people from the Federal Student Aid office, and the department's Office of Inspector General, which investigates fraud, has lost more than 20% of its staff through attrition and retirements since October. 'I'm just nervous that I'm going to be stuck with this,' Brady said. 'The agency is going to be so broken down and disintegrated that I won't be able to do anything, and I'm just going to be stuck with those $9,000' in loans. Criminal cases around the country offer a glimpse of the schemes' pervasiveness. In the past year, investigators indicted a man accused of leading a Texas fraud ring that used stolen identities to pursue $1.5 million in student aid. Another person in Texas pleaded guilty to using the names of prison inmates to apply for over $650,000 in student aid at colleges across the South and Southwest. And a person in New York recently pleaded guilty to a $450,000 student aid scam that lasted a decade. Identify fraud victims who never attended college are hit with student debt Brittnee Nelson of Shreveport, Louisiana, was bringing her daughter to day care two years ago when she received a notification that her credit score had dropped 27 points. Loans had been taken out in her name for colleges in California and Louisiana, she discovered. She canceled one before it was paid out, but it was too late to stop a loan of over $5,000 for Delgado Community College in New Orleans. Nelson runs her own housecleaning business and didn't go to college. She already was signed up for identity theft protection and carefully monitored her credit. Still, her debt almost went into collections before the loan was put in forbearance. She recently got the loans taken off her record after two years of effort. 'It's like if someone came into your house and robbed you,' she said. The federal government's efforts to verify borrowers' identity could help, she said. 'If they can make these hurdles a little bit harder and have these verifications more provable, I think that's really, really, really going to protect people in the long run,' she said. Delgado spokesperson Barbara Waiters said responsibility for approving loans ultimately lies with federal agencies. 'This is an unfortunate and serious matter, but it is not the direct or indirect result of Delgado's internal processes,' Waiters said. In San Francisco, the loans taken out in Brady's name are in a grace period, but still on the books. That has not been her only challenge. A few months ago, she was laid off from her job and decided to sign up for a class at City College San Francisco to help her career. But all the classes were full. After a few weeks, Brady finally was able to sign up for a class. The professor apologized for the delay in spots opening up: The college has been struggling with fraudulent applications. ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Daily Mail
07-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
California colleges are being inundated with GHOST students who have a very sinister purpose
Artificial Intelligence (AI) bots are infiltrating California college classes in a financial aid fraud scheme, costing the state and federal government millions of dollars. Professors across Golden State community colleges have noticed an uptick in non-participative students, specifically in virtual classes, since the pandemic. Alarmingly, a significant portion of these passive enrollees have not actually been human, but AI-generated 'ghost students.' These bots have been creeping their way into online courses and taking spots away from real students to scam money from financial aid and scholarship programs. Since community colleges have high acceptance rates, these academic institutions have been easy targets. Over the last 12 months, state colleges reportedly handed off $10 million in federal funds and $3 million in states funds to fake students, according to CalMatters. Data collected from the start of 2025 indicates schools have already thrown away $3 million in federal aid and about $700,000 in state funds. This is a jarring increase from the period between September 2021 and December 2023, when fake students reportedly drew in more than $5 million in federal money and $1.5 million in state funds. This growingly prominent scam has left professors disheartened. Instead of focusing on the quality of their teaching, they must probe their students to make sure they are legitimate. 'I am very intentional about having individualized interaction with all of my students as early as possible,' City College of San Francisco professor Robin Pugh told SFGate. 'That included making phone calls to people, sending email messages, just a lot of reaching out individually to find out "Are you just overwhelmed at work and haven't gotten around to starting the class yet? Or are you not a real person?"' In previous years, Pugh said she only had to pluck about five people from her 40-student online introductory real estate course for not engaging with her at the start of the semester. But this spring, she had to slash 11 students - most of them bots - from the class. Roughly 20 percent of 2021 college applicants were likely fraudulent, CalMatters reported. In January 2024, the number of fake applications rose to 25 percent. The fraction shot up this year, with 34 percent of applications being suspected 'ghost students.' 'It's been going on for quite some time,' Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, the president of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges and a professor at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, told SFGate. 'I think the reason that you're hearing more about it is that it's getting harder and harder to combat or to deal with. 'I have heard from faculty friends that the bots are getting so smart, they're being programmed in a way that they can even complete some of the initial assignments in online classes so that they're not dropped...' Berkeley City College librarian Heather Dodge realized her online course was packed with the scammer bots when she asked students to submit a brief introductory video of themselves so she could get to know them, despite never meeting in person. 'I started noticing that there would be a handful of students that wouldn't submit that assignment in the first week,' she told CalMatters. After emailing them - and not receiving a response - she dropped them from her class. Southwestern College professor Elizabeth Smith had a similar experience this spring, when two of her online courses and their waiting lists were completely maxed out. 'Teachers get excited when there's a lot of interest in their class. I felt like, "Great, I'm going to have a whole bunch of students who are invested and learning,"' she told The Hechinger Report. 'But it quickly became clear that was not the case.' Of the 104 students in the classes and on the waitlists, only 15 of the ended up being real people. Professors have a specified time frame to move people from their roster so they cannot get financial aid for the class. However, after that period, it is more difficult to remove them. Educators are also weary of becoming overzealous with their cuts - accidentally mistaking an actual student, possibly experiencing technical difficulties, for a scammer-sent agent. 'Maybe they didn't have a webcam, maybe they didn't understand the assignment. It was really hard to suss out what was going on with them,' Dodge explained. This was the case for Martin Romero, a journalism major at East Los Angeles College, who was mistook for a bot and wrongfully dropped from a class. On his first day of classes last fall, he failed to log onto class, so his professor swiftly removed him. 'I was freaking out,' the 20-year-old told CalMatters. He emailed the professor to try to rectify the issue, but the course was already filled up again. In the grand scheme of college funding, the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office estimated only a fraction of a percent of financial aid was handed out to scammers, SFGate reported. Chris Ferguson, a finance executive at the chancellor's office, told CalMatters the scope of the fraud is 'relatively small' considering that California community colleges received $1.7 billion in federal aid and $1.5 billion in state aid last year. Catherine Grant of the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General, which is tasked with handling fraud, told CalMatters her team is 'committed to fighting student aid fraud wherever we find it.' CalMatters discovered that the FBI busted a scammer ring at Los Angeles Harbor College and West Los Angeles College in June 2022 after being tipped off by the department. These fraudsters used at least 57 AI identities to steal more than $1.1 million in federal aid and loans over four years. Another document from the education department to the FBI revealed at least 70 fake students were enrolled at Los Angeles City College 'for the sole purpose of obtaining financial aid refund money.'
