Chatbots are impersonating students for profit - make sure your place is safe

Date:
Mon, 16 Jun 2025 16:04:00 +0000

Description:
Colleges must contend with fake students and exaggerated enrollments, experts warn.

FULL STORY

The rise of Artificial Intelligence has had a transformative impact on classrooms and college campuses across the world, but a new report from the Associated Press claims chatbots are now posing as students in order to
collect financial aid, and are even attending online classes - and taking spaces from real students.

Analysis of fraud reports has uncovered a whopping 1.2 million fraudulent applications in California alone, leading to 223,000 suspected fake
enrolments. California in particular is a target because of the large number
of community colleges.

If your credentials have been compromised in a data breach, take advantage of the best identity theft protection software available to make sure you're protected against this type of attack.

Unrecoverable losses

These ghost students dont just apply for a loan and hope for a payout,
though. Chatbots have been deployed to online classrooms, where they stay
just long enough to collect the financial aid check from the college.

Some lecturers even report having online classrooms with barely any real students as bots have filled the class to the enrollment limit.

According to researchers, criminals stole at least $11 million in local,
state, and federal financial aid that cannot be recovered, just from
California colleges in the last year, so the problem is widespread.

This isnt the first time weve heard of AI scams fueling a rise in identity theft and fraud, with hackers seen leveling up their tactics , with more sophisticated attacks leveraged at a higher frequency than ever before.

Many of these scammers will use information obtained from data breaches, such as names, addresses, ages, and social security numbers. With this data they will apply for grants and loans using real credentials.

In March 2025, over 300 people were fired from the Federal Student Aid Office by the Trump administration, and the departments fraud investigation unit has lost over 20% of its staff through attrition and retirements since October 2025.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/chatbots-are-impersonating-students-for -profit-make-sure-youre-safe-with-our-tips

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