Community colleges are facing a growing crisis as masses of 'bot students' enroll in online courses to fraudulently collect financial aid. The numbers are staggering. In California, the state’s chancellor’s office estimates that 25% of applicants to its community colleges are bots.

Some create totally fake personas. Others steal identities or even re-enroll using former student’s ID numbers.

Since the pandemic shifted more courses online, bots have increasingly targeted community colleges, which have open admissions policies and disburse significant financial aid. In California, more than $11 million was paid out to fake students in 2024, more than double the previous year.

These bots – controlled by fraud rings – pose as real students, often using AI to submit coursework so that they can stay enrolled just long enough to receive the aid.

An article in the Voice of San Diego explores the issue in depth, explaining that some professors initially celebrated full classes before discovering most of their students were fake.

These bots – controlled by fraud rings – pose as real students, often using AI to submit coursework so that they can stay enrolled just long enough to receive the aid.
It has transformed teaching into detective work.

Professors now scrutinize assignments and enrollment behavior to determine if students are real. They look for odd language in emails and AI-generated coursework as red flags.

The situation is especially severe in large online courses. Teachers spend the first weeks of classes identifying and dropping fake students before aid disbursements begin in week three. But they face a Catch-22. If real students don’t refill those open seats, the courses may be cancelled due to low enrollment, and the instructor could lose pay or even their position.

In some cases bots used student ID numbers and names from former students to re-enroll and collect aid.

One professor profiled in the Voice of San Diego article uncovered identity theft cases where bots used student ID numbers and names from former students to re-enroll and collect aid.

While the number of bot applicants is massive at one in four, the actual dollar volume stolen does not really move the needle. In California, more than $3 billion was disbursed in state and federal financial aid last year, so an $11 million dollar loss is manageable.

But this specific fraud approach is new as are the AI tools enabling it. As the power of AI and these bot students grow exponentially, the ability for institutions to keep up is in question.

Even if the financial aid losses are not yet immense, the problem already is. The cost is significant in both lost faculty time and reduced trust in institutions.
Additionally, there is a high cost to combatting this cybercrime and purging fake students.

Between September 2021 and January 2024, there were 900,000 fraudulent applications submitted to California Community Colleges, according to CalMatters.

Stopping that many bot students is a tall and costly order.