Back on June 24, 2025. about 31% of applications to California’s 116 community colleges were deemed likely fraudulent by the chancellor’s office—equating to over 1.2 million fake applications. These were mostly detected and blocked before enrollment or aid disbursement, but some fraud succeeded, costing millions in stolen financial aid (around $11 million total in 2024, a small fraction of the billions distributed overall).
The piece discusses ongoing efforts to combat the issue, like improved detection tools, identity verification, and a proposed $10 application fee to deter bots and scammers targeting the free-application, open-access system.