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   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.   
      
   ======================================================================   
   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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