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Entities

Various generative AI tools

Incidents implicated systems

Incident 10382 Report
Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

2025-04-22

Between 2021 and 2025, California community colleges faced a surge in fraudulent applications—now estimated at 34% of all submissions. Reports indicate that scammers used generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, to produce identity-verifying responses that enabled them to impersonate students and obtain financial aid. The fraud allegedly resulted in over $13 million in losses over the past year alone, straining administrative and instructional systems and displacing legitimate applicants.

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Related Entities
Other entities that are related to the same incident. For example, if the developer of an incident is this entity but the deployer is another entity, they are marked as related entities.
 

Entity

scammers

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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Entity

Fraudsters

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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Entity

Scammers targeting California community colleges

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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Entity

OpenAI

Incidents involved as Developer
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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Entity

Unknown generative AI developers

Incidents involved as Developer
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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Entity

California community colleges

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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Entity

California community college students

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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Entity

Financial aid recipients

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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Entity

U.S. taxpayers

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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Entity

California community college faculty

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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Entity

ChatGPT

Incidents implicated systems
  • Incident 1038
    2 Reports

    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid

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