Phantom Students, Real Money

Tired of playing the lotto? A recently trending money hack involving AI has taken many scholastic institutions by storm over the last few years. Due to the pandemic, students no longer have to apply, enroll, or attend classes physically. This unknowingly created the perfect environment for hackers to swoop in and take advantage of a newfound, and quite lucrative, opportunity.

In the last few years, faculty members at highly-accredited colleges across the nation began noticing strange behaviors among their enrollees. Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, a professor at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, noticed her course roster had student ID numbers that were all abnormally in sequential order. She mentioned, “When classes would start, those suspicious ‘students’ wouldn’t show up or interact at all over email”. However, Brill-Wynkoop pointed out that some of these bots managed to complete real coursework. (GovTech.com) With the power of AI, these hackers can go to lengths to reach their goal. According to Cal Matters, covert hackers are using the guise of being homeless, and even stealing identities, to surpass verification processes. Once they bypass these systems, the hackers will use bots to take out loans in fictional, and real, people’s names.

News Nation reports, “Criminals stole at least $11.1 million in unrecovered federal, state, and local financial aid from California colleges last year.” Just to put it into perspective, “Nationwide, these crimes cost institutions over $100 million in 2023—a tenfold increase from the annual average before 2020.” (Yahoo News) There is immense pressure on teachers and faculty to make sure the correct students are getting these funds, instead of missing out because a bot secured its spot quicker than a genuine student could. Laqwacia Simpkins is the CEO of an edtech firm that works with colleges and universities to verify student identities. One interesting factor she noticed is, that “scammers have learned to strike on vulnerable days in the academic calendar, around holidays, enrollment deadlines, culmination, or at the start or end of term when staff are already stretched thin or systems are more loosely monitored.” (Fortune) Hackers are very keen on the strengths and weaknesses of the scholastic staff and faculty and take full advantage of these vulnerabilities. Simpkins adds, “They push through hundreds and thousands of records at the same time and overwhelm the staff”.

Luckily, public higher education providers like California Community Colleges are garnering hope with the measures they have installed to combat such high-level fraud. On their website, they updated: “At the beginning of 2024, the Chancellor’s Office, in partnership with the California Community Colleges, further expanded fraud prevention capabilities with the implementation of identity proofing through ID.me, enhancing the security and integrity of the student application process.” (California Community Colleges) Even better news is, “These changes delivered rapid results, cutting the number of confirmed fraudulent applications in the system in half in the first two weeks of launch.” With security efforts being made to protect funds for those who are entitled, things aren’t quite picture-perfect yet. 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.” (Seattle Times)

Oh, how the pendulum swings. The duality of life in modern times is never short of surprises. With the rise of technology used to facilitate the lives of civilians, comes just as much opportunity for someone with ulterior motives to take advantage. Whether it be in pursuit of higher learning or simply for ease of use, we must remain vigilant with the technology that supports our lives.