Source: Fox News
“The Department of Education thwarted more than $1 billion in student aid fraud under President Donald Trump’s first year in office, including stopping suspected bots and ‘ghost students’ from obtaining taxpayer-funded loans, Fox News Digital learned. Officials say the savings come from new ‘enhanced fraud controls’ the department implemented in June to combat fraudsters from working to obtain financial assistance loans from colleges. College officials and cybersecurity experts in recent years have pointed to a new scam trend of ‘ghost students’, which are fabricated or stolen identities created solely to enroll, trigger financial aid disbursements and then disappear. Ghost students are believed to be powered by AI bots or run by criminal networks using real Americans’ personal information. Other scams have included the use of deceased individuals’ identities in order to fraudulently obtain loans.” (12/11/25)