Trump admin requiring gov issued ID to apply for federal student aid saved $200 million in fraud in 2 months
EXCLUSIVE – The Department of Education (ED) claims it has blocked nearly $200 million from falling into the hands of fraudsters since launching a strict new identity-verification mandate on April 27.
The nationwide fraud prevention effort requires high-risk applicants to present government-issued identification when applying for federal student aid.
"Since we launched it, we've prevented nearly $200 million from falling into the hands of fraudsters," James Bergeron, Deputy Under Secretary of Education and Acting Federal Student Aid Chief Operating Officer, told Fox News Digital. "Our new fraud detection tool is at the FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] form level. It stops fraud at the start of the process before the money goes out the door, which is a big priority for the task force."
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The department integrated the real-time, risk-based identity screening directly into the online FAFSA application system this spring.
"Effective immediately, fraud detection is built directly into the FAFSA itself, with every applicant evaluated in real-time using risk-based identity screening," the department previously announced. "Applicants who display a certain level of fraud risk will now be required to present government-issued identification before accessing federal student aid funds such as Pell Grants and federal student loans."
Department officials estimate the tool will save taxpayers over $1 billion during the current FAFSA cycle.
According to the department, the strict security posture is a necessary correction to the COVID-19 pandemic era, when the Biden-Harris administration rolled back key verification safeguards. The department claims those previous policies diverted resources away from fraud prevention and required less than 1% of students to verify their identity following their FAFSA submission.
The "enhanced fraud controls" are tailored to intercept sophisticated, modern scams, specifically blocking AI-generated bots and "ghost students"— fraudulent identities engineered by bad actors to siphon taxpayer-funded loans.
To combat this, Education Secretary Linda McMahon ordered a comprehensive review of all student aid programs and expanded real-time data-sharing with the Social Security Administration. This data-sharing initiative alone is credited with saving taxpayers $30 million by catching identity theft and preventing disbursements to deceased individuals.
"American citizens have to present an ID to drive a car, to get on a plane," Bergeron told Fox News Digital. "So we only think that it's right that folks should have to verify their identity to access the tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars that go to fund post-secondary education."
Further tightening the safeguards, the ED partnered with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ensure federal student aid funds are not diverted to illegal immigrants.
Agency data shows that California suffered the highest concentration of attempted fraud, with the state accounting for $171 million of the blocked funds. Millions of dollars in federal and state aid have historically been lost to "ghost students" within the sweeping California Community College System, which has seen an alarming percentage of identity scams in recent years.
Beyond front-end application verification, the department is also targeting outward-facing digital scams. The ED recently published updated online resources warning families about predatory "fake college websites" that leverage AI-generated content to lure unsuspecting students into financial schemes.