Ghost Students Are Stealing Billions in College Aid

A college scam you've probably never heard of is quietly piling up federal losses and personal headaches, ABC News reports. So-called "ghost students" use stolen or fabricated identities to enroll at community colleges, secure federal grants and loans, then vanish—leaving taxpayers on the hook and victims discovering surprise education debts. One of them, 58-year-old PhD holder Murat Mayor, says he and his high-school-senior son learned last fall that aid accounts had already been created in their names, complete with applications to multiple schools.

Jason Williams of the Education Department's Office of Inspector General calls it "a huge issue," supercharged by the pandemic shift to online learning and now boosted by AI. His office has probed more than $350 million in confirmed fraud and has over 200 investigations open, with some schemes suspected of topping $1 billion.

Community colleges with open enrollment are the front line, with California officials saying nearly one in three 2024 applicants appeared fake. Schools are racing to adopt identity-verification software, but administrators describe a rolling "crisis" that in some cases leaves legitimate students shut out. For the full scope of the schemes—and how investigators and colleges are scrambling to catch up—read the full ABC News piece.