08/25/2025

Colleges have a new worry: ‘Ghost students’—AI powered fraud rings angling to get millions in financial aid

AOL

The “ghost-student” epidemic that has been attacking California’s community college system is infesting the nation, with colleges in Arizona, Indiana, Oregon, New Jersey, and Michigan working to defend their institutions from AI-powered fraud rings trying to blend in with legitimate students heading back to school.

Synthetic or “ghost” students refers to masses of falsified or stolen identities scammers use to flood college application and enrollment portals with thousands of submissions in minutes—usually during holidays, weekends, or other times admissions staff will be bare bones. If they’re successful, the fraud rings will attempt to register the fake students for classes and apply for financial aid, often squeezing out real students who can’t get seats in the classes they need. The ghost wielders have even resorted to submitting homework through the use of AI—anything to try to keep from getting dropped from a class. Sometimes, all they’ll get away with is a college email address. But even that has value, security experts said, giving the scammers a veneer of legitimacy as a college student. A simple email address that ends in .edu allows for discounts on laptops, software, music streaming services and, critically, allows the scammers to use those student identities to fraudulently apply for jobs at companies.