The Rise of Fraudulent Applicants and What It Means for Higher Education 

Fraud in higher education is evolving quickly and institutions are feeling the impact.

What was once considered a rare occurrence has become a growing operational challenge across higher education enrollment teams. Since 2019, the federal government has uncovered more than $350 million in student aid fraud tied to “ghost student” schemes, according to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General.

At Collegis, conversations about fraudulent applicants are no longer occasional. They’re happening weekly with our partner institutions as they work to manage increasing volumes of suspicious applications entering the enrollment funnel.

While enrollment teams often feel the impact first, fraudulent applications also create financial, operational, and strategic challenges across the institution.

What are ‘ghost applicants’?

Fraudulent applicants, also called ghost applicants, generally fall into two categories:

• Applicants using completely fake identities
• Applicants using stolen personal information to impersonate real individuals.

In both cases, the goal is the same: Gain access to federal financial aid funds through FAFSA eligibility before disappearing from the enrollment process.

Some fraudulent applicants are relatively easy to identify. Their information may contain obvious inconsistencies, such as mismatched email addresses and applicant names, invalid phone numbers, or limited responsiveness beyond email communication.

Others are much more sophisticated.

In cases involving true identity fraud, applications can appear legitimate at first glance. Contact information may work properly, documents may seem authentic, and applicants may even participate in full enrollment conversations while posing as prospective students. These applicants often move rapidly through the enrollment process, progressing from application start to submission in an unusually short period of time.

As fraud tactics evolve, institutions are finding that many of the traditional red flags alone are no longer enough.

Why this issue is accelerating

The rise in fraudulent applications is closely tied to broader shifts in higher education enrollment.

Programs that are fully online, high volume, and designed with streamlined admissions processes are often the most vulnerable. While those characteristics are essential for improving access and scalability, they can also create opportunities for misuse.

Fraudulent actors understand where low-friction processes exist and how to move through them quickly with limited interaction.

The continued expansion of online learning, combined with increasing sophistication in fraud tactics, has only accelerated the issue. Institutions that rely heavily on manual review processes or reactive fraud prevention measures are finding it increasingly difficult to keep pace.

And where there is one fraudulent application, there are often many more behind it.

The institutional impact goes beyond financial loss

The financial implications of fraudulent applicants are significant, but the operational and strategic consequences can be even more damaging.

Enrollment teams are already working under tight resource constraints. When staff members spend time reviewing suspicious records, validating questionable documentation, or conducting outreach to fraudulent applicants, they are pulled away from engaging legitimate prospective students.

That operational strain compounds quickly.

Fraudulent applications can overwhelm staff capacity, slow response times, and create unnecessary friction across the enrollment process. In some cases, institutions may even adjust staffing models, recruitment strategies, or marketing investments based on inflated application numbers that do not reflect actual enrollment opportunity.

The impact on institutional data is equally concerning.

Enrollment and admissions leaders rely on application and pipeline data to forecast performance, allocate budgets, and make strategic decisions. When ghost applicants artificially inflate application volume or enrollment projections, institutions risk operating from an inaccurate understanding of pipeline health.

In today’s increasingly competitive enrollment environment, institutions often have less time and margin for error to recognize and respond to those shifts before enrollment goals are impacted.

Why fraud is becoming harder to detect

One of the biggest challenges institutions face today is that fraudulent behavior is becoming more sophisticated and more difficult to identify.

Many of the traditional warning signs institutions once relied on are becoming less reliable. Fraudulent applicants are increasingly mimicking legitimate student behavior and progressing further into the enrollment funnel without obvious indicators of concern.

Still, there are several patterns institutions should watch closely, including:

• Mismatched applicant names and email addresses
• Duplicate phone numbers used across multiple applications
• Invalid or disconnected phone numbers
• Inconsistent transcripts, resumes, or supporting materials
• IP address locations that do not align with stated geographic information
• Near-instant progression from application start to completion

The challenge is that identifying these signals manually does not scale effectively, especially when institutions are managing high application volumes.

Moving from reactive to proactive

Fraudulent applications are no longer a one-off issue that can be handled through occasional manual review. Institutions need systematic, scalable approaches to fraud detection that balance security with the student experience.

One of the most effective strategies is implementing earlier identity validation within the enrollment process. Emerging tools and technologies, including solutions like Stripe Identity, now allow institutions to introduce scalable verification checkpoints before significant staff time and institutional resources have already been invested.

Equally important is adopting a risk-based approach to review.

Rather than manually investigating every application, institutions can use known fraud indicators and behavioral patterns to identify higher-risk records that require additional scrutiny. This allows enrollment teams to focus attention where it is most needed while maintaining momentum for legitimate students.

At Collegis, we’re actively developing a fraud risk scoring methodology designed to help institutions identify potentially fraudulent applications based on known application and behavioral patterns. The goal is not to create unnecessary barriers for students, but to help institutions scale fraud detection efforts in a way that is operationally sustainable and minimally disruptive to the enrollment experience.

Protecting access, integrity, and outcomes

Institutions are working hard to expand access to education and create seamless enrollment experiences for prospective students. Fraudulent applicants undermine that mission by diverting resources, distorting institutional data, and creating operational risk.

As fraudulent activity continues to evolve, institutions need scalable, proactive approaches to identity verification and fraud detection. At Collegis, we’re committed to helping partners stay ahead of this challenge through data-informed strategies and smarter enrollment solutions that protect both institutional integrity and student experience.

If your institution is navigating challenges related to fraudulent applicants or enrollment integrity, reach out to the Collegis team to learn how we can help.