AI tracked down nearly 80,000 ‘ghost students’ trying to enroll

[Evil Penevil]

AI tracked down nearly 80,000 ‘ghost students’ trying to enroll in California colleges

 

The fraudulent student epidemic that prompted policy change from the Department of Education after it discovered $90 million had been disbursed to ineligible students is losing ground in California.   

 

The state’s community college system, which suffered thousands of attacks from scammer-deployed “ghost” students last year, has brought in an AI fraud detection platform to track down and boot fake students from registering for classes and stealing financial aid meant for real people.  

 

AI tracked down nearly 80,000 ‘ghost students’ trying to enroll in California colleges

[TedG]

Does the state of CA not have a verification process for students? 

[Will B Good]

9 minutes ago, TedG said:

Does the state of CA not have a verification process for students? 

 

Nor do these it seems

 

 

1. Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota

 

•  These states have begun using the LightLeap.AI platform, originally deployed in California, to detect fraudulent applications and financial aid claims A.

 

2. New York

 

•  Governor Kathy Hochul proposed ending the state’s “Save Harmless” provision, which had allowed districts to retain funding despite enrollment drops—often inflated by ghost students B.

 

3. Oklahoma

 

•  Revised its “hold harmless” policy to a one-year lookback, reducing the window for inflated funding based on outdated enrollment figures B.

 

4. Missouri

 

•  Nearly half of school districts received funding for an estimated 44,997 ghost students, prompting calls for reform 

[Will B Good]

 

 

 

I thought DOGE was supposed to be on top of all this fraud?

[Middle Aged Grouch]

This along with other contexts where dollars are freely handed out all over eastern europe, no wonder the USA is broke, 

[Evil Penevil]

17 minutes ago, TedG said:

Does the state of CA not have a verification process for students? 

 

These cases of fraud almost always concern community colleges, which accept nearly anyone who applies.  Community colleges were notorious for not verifying the identities of students as this could be considered "discriminatory" against minority groups.  In other cases, verification measures were suspended during  the Covid-19 years and haven't been reinstituted.