Last year, officials at Minnesota State College Southeast were heartened by a gratifying trend. Spring enrollment numbers were up — way up. It was a mirage. Many of the students weren’t real. They were “ghost students.” In all, the college ended up dropping 84 fake students — all believed to be part of a scam to access and abscond with financial aid money. The ploy represents a new kind of enrollment fraud that U.S. and area colleges are facing. The fraudsters, using stolen or fabricated identities, pose as online learners. Often targeting community and technical colleges, where digital learning comprises a significant portion of enrollment, these “learners” take advantage of the asynchronous nature of online learning.
