<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen rampant fraud is taking aid away from eligible students, disrupting the operations of colleges, and ripping off taxpayers, we have a responsibility to act,\u201d U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in June, when announcing stricter security measures for the fall semester.<\/p>\n
The spring of 2024 began an onslaught of fake applications to the Community College of Baltimore County, with more volume and complexity than the institution had seen before , according to Matthew Lang, the school\u2019s assistant vice president of enrollment and outreach operations.<\/p>\n
The school has been developing solutions for the scam applications since May of that year, he said. But outpacing scammers has turned into an arms race. At first, batches of 20 to 30 applications would arrive within short periods, causing staff to flag them. In response, the scammers started submitting applications at a slower\u00a0rate,<\/strong> one every two hours.<\/p>\n \u201cWe start to see a pattern. We stop it. Then they adjust,\u201d Lang said. He said the phony applications are likely tied to criminal rings, not just individual scammers. <\/p>\n In Maryland, the problem appears to be primarily affecting community colleges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not aware of this happening at our universities, but we are aware of this happening at other institutions and are monitoring,\u201d Michael Sandler, a spokesperson for the University System of Maryland, said in a statement Thursday. The USM does not include community colleges. <\/strong><\/p>\n The Department of Education noted that such scams siphon millions of dollars in aid money intended for real students. One community college in California flagged 10,000 suspicious applications, the department said. Members of California’s congressional delegation, in a letter<\/a> to the department, stated that 34% of the state’s community college applications were found to be fraudulent.<\/p>\n Minnesota saw similar rates of fraud, the Department of Education noted. And, in the fall of 2024, the College of Southern Nevada wrote off $7.4 million due to fraudulent enrollments, it added.<\/p>\n\n As a result, ineligible recipients nationwide\u00a0had received $90 million in student aid as of May, the education department reported. As of February, $40 million in direct loan payments and $6 million in Pell Grants, which are for undergraduate students with high levels of financial need, were wrongfully disbursed, it said.<\/p>\n Maryland education officials did not comment when asked about the financial impact of such scams in this state.<\/p>\n\n To combat the fraud, the department reinstated certain safeguards, such as flagging suspicious financial aid applicants and automated screening of student aid records.<\/p>\n “Ghost” or “spam” students often use stolen identities to apply for financial aid and community classes. Others apply legitimately, but only for the purpose of getting a financial aid refund, according to Tamika Bybee, associate vice president for enrollment services at Howard Community College.<\/p>\n Now, because Howard’s spam students know they need to participate to get refunds, they are using AI also to submit assignments and participate in class discussion posts. <\/p>\n “That’s another aspect that has now made it extremely difficult to pinpoint whether these are spam or fraudulent students,”\u00a0 Bybee said. “They’re becoming very savvy.”<\/p>\n AI can also help stop fraud. While the fraudsters are using it to fill out applications, Lang said CCBC uses it to find patterns or discrepancies in suspicious applications.<\/p>\n CCBC\u2019s new application platform can track and assess the time taken on each question, as well as where students stop the application. After submission, each application is carefully reviewed by software for legitimacy before proceeding to the admissions process. The software flags suspicious applications before passing them to staff for manual review and requesting additional information from the student.<\/p>\n The school receives over 20,000 applications every year, but the increased scrutiny and review process largely hasn\u2019t delayed legitimate applicants\u2019 admissions, Lang said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is certainly something that our president wanted to make sure did not happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Because the software filters through applications quickly, a student whose application was judged as suspicious might not even know they were delayed, Lang said. <\/p>\n \u201cCommunity colleges, because we\u2019re an open door, \u2026 it\u2019s a less intensive admissions process. Whereas \u2026 at a four-year [college or university], it\u2019s a multi-month process. So we\u2019re much shorter than anything a four-year would experience,\u201d Lang said.<\/p>\n Howard Community College sees between 15,000 and 20,000 applications yearly, according to Bybee. Before the school’s spam control was implemented, up to a third of the applications it received were ghost students, she said.<\/p>\n A dedicated spam team now hand-reviews each application, Bybee said. The spam team catches red flags such as multiple applications with the same phone number or fake IDs submitted as identity verification. The team can review and clear an application within three days; however, in-person applicants and enrollees can be done in one day.<\/p>\n Those who are caught trying to fool the school get dropped from all their classes and have to face federal regulations, she said. If aid has already been disbursed, the school has to return the aid to the government. If the spam student has alreadygotten their refund, that contributes to the school’s debt.<\/p>\n An official from Anne Arundel Community College agreed that “emerging technologies continue to introduce new and evolving risks.”<\/p>\n “Anne Arundel Community College remains proactive and adaptable, implementing strategies that evolve with the threat landscape,” said Felicia Patterson, vice president for Learner Support Services at Anne Arundel Community College.<\/p>\n Nationwide applicants for summer programs saw some heightened security measures, but a new, permanent screening process is coming in the fall with the aim of ending identity fraud in financial aid, the Department of Education said in June.<\/p>\n Although Lang did not have details yet on what that process would look like, he said he expects the federal government will request more identity verifications with additional steps, as well as more data collection from the school.<\/p>\n The processing system behind the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, selects applications that require additional verification, according to the Federal Student Aid office\u2019s website<\/a>. Schools can separately elect to verify information on a student\u2019s aid application.<\/p>\nAI for bad, and for good<\/h4>\n
New security measures coming<\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-936987328-1.jpg\")
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