{"id":397,"date":"2026-05-19T13:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/californiamovingreport.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/california-community-colleges-crack-down-on-fake-students-stealing-financial-aid\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T13:00:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:00:35","slug":"california-community-colleges-crack-down-on-fake-students-stealing-financial-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/californiamovingreport.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/california-community-colleges-crack-down-on-fake-students-stealing-financial-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"California community colleges crack down on fake students stealing financial aid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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California\u2019s community colleges have been battling fraudulent students for years, trying to prevent scammers from stealing financial aid money.\u00a0<\/p>

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Recent data shows the colleges\u2019 efforts finally may be working.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last spring, CalMatters reported that colleges were seeing unprecedented reports of fraud, with scammers stealing millions more dollars of student aid than in any previous period, according to reports submitted by colleges to California\u2019s Community Colleges Chancellor\u2019s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now fewer scammers are bypassing colleges\u2019 vetting systems, according to monthly reports, and school administrators say they\u2019re better, though still not perfect, at detecting and preventing fraud.<\/p>\n

After CalMatters reported on the rise in fraud last year, Republican U.S. Congress members called for a federal investigation, a Democratic state legislator launched a state audit and later, California\u2019s Community Colleges Chancellor\u2019s Office approved a new ID verification policy for students. Colleges now are more vigilant about policing fraud, said Jory Hadsell, an executive in technology initiatives for the chancellor\u2019s office, who pointed to better filtering practices and new software to detect fraud.<\/p>\n

Between January and March 2025, scammers stole nearly $5.6 million in federal student aid and over $900,000 in state aid. By comparison, this spring colleges have reported losing just under $1.5 million in federal student aid and about $330,000 in state aid to fraudsters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last spring was \u201creally the peak,\u201d Hadsell said. He said he anticipates the end-of-year total in 2026 to be \u201csignificantly lower\u201d than last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even in the worst months, such as last spring, the money distributed to scammers is less than 1% of the total financial aid distributed to community college students in California. Students use the money to help pay for tuition, books and the cost of daily living expenses, such as rent, transportation and food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But any fraud, however small, is unacceptable, said Chris Ferguson, executive vice chancellor of finance and strategic initiatives. \u201cThe ultimate goal for our system is zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some anti-fraud policies have been slow to take effect. The California Community Colleges Board of Governors voted nearly a year ago to require ID verification for all students, but only about 50% of college students are doing it as of this month. Hadsell said the delays arose in part because of complications verifying information of students under 18 years old, who represent a growing demographic for the community colleges. He said ID verification, which is currently optional, will become mandatory on July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The board also voted to \u201cexplore\u201d the option of charging students an application fee of no more than $10, but with the rates of fraud declining and other solutions that seem to work, the chancellor\u2019s office is no longer pursuing that option, Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

After blaming California officials, the U.S. Department of Education, which shares responsibility\u00a0 for administering federal aid and detecting fraud, said it would implement a \u201cscreening process\u201d for applicants. It was supposed to take effect last fall but didn\u2019t launch until last month, according to press releases from the department and statements from the California Student Aid Commission. CalMatters reached out to the U.S. Education Department five times over the last 12 months, seeking clarification, but the department has refused to respond to\u00a0 questions about delays with the screening process.<\/p>\n

When more than a third of college applicants are fake<\/h2>\n

After classes suddenly moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Community Colleges Chancellor\u2019s Office saw an increase in financial aid fraud on their application portal, CCCApply, which is used by nearly every student as the first step in applying to community college.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2021, the chancellor\u2019s office suspected roughly 20% of applicants were fraudulent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The estimate was higher in January 2024, around 25%. Last spring, it was 34%, though some schools saw much higher rates.<\/p>\n

After they apply through CCCApply, students get filtered locally at their college of choice. In the Los Rios Community College District, which represents Sacramento, college officials suspected 64% of local applications from January to March 2025 were fraudulent. And that was after the state already vetted them through its portal, said Gabe Ross, a spokesperson for the district. The San Diego and Los Angeles community college districts also reported spikes in the number of fraudulent applications around the same time.<\/p>

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CalMatters reached out to the five largest community college districts for an interview. The Rancho Santiago Community College District, which includes parts of Orange County, did not provide sufficient data to draw conclusions about trends in fraud. The State Center Community College District, which represents schools in Fresno and Madera counties, did not respond to CalMatters\u2019 questions.<\/p>\n

Monthly data reports to the chancellor\u2019s office show that once detected, most scammers who applied to community colleges were then caught and kicked out before they could apply for financial aid, but some succeeded.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n