Western Colorado University is being haunted. The ghost student phenomenon has made its way to the college. Spring semester enrollment saw 23 fraudulent applications, but the admissions team already has a handle on things.
Of those 23 applications, 10 were admitted and applied for federal aid. Leslie Taylor, Western’s vice president of marketing and enrollment, and the team were able to cut these “students” off before their aid was processed, but now the issue lies in the real people being affected.
Josh Gaspard, an electrical engineer living in Louisiana, is still reeling from the news.
“It’s not completely rectified. When someone has your information, you don’t know what else they may try to do with it,” said Gaspard. “They successfully applied to 10 universities, and tried to get financial aid.” As soon as Taylor notified him, Gaspard put a freeze on his credit, but he says out of the 10 universities across the nation that have false applications under his name, Western was the only one to be proactive and cooperative. His alma mater, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, sent out his transcripts to the ghost, and had no idea of the fraudulent nature of the request.
“The universities are hesitant to send me the applications that had been filled out in my name, but I need that in order to make a case to protect myself,” he said. “It’s a weird situation for everyone. Everyone that I’ve spoken with, it seems like it’s the first time they’ve seen anyone do this.”
This new push of fraud has become a major trend in the nation. More than 30 percent of applications to California Community Colleges in 2024 were identified as fraudulent.
“We think we’ve been fairly lucky,” Taylor said. “There may have been a couple in fall that we’re less certain about. Of the spring, we put a hold on all of their financial aid so nothing was disbursed. We’re small, and we have the ability to do that.”
These applications share a lot of similarities, laying out a pattern for admissions to follow. Most come from middle-aged adults, many with prior undergraduate degrees.
“Another thing that triggered us to look at students was, they would make multiple payments with a debit card, but wanted the refund to go to a different bank account, and sometimes it was the same bank account for multiple students,” said Taylor. “As soon as they recognize we know they are fraudulent, they just disappear.”
Western professors have helped in the efforts to quell the fraud as well. Professor Bill Niemi was able to detect a student enrolled in his class who aligned with many of the warning signs.
Western has taken this issue by the horns, contacting every person who's been compromised and helping them take steps to rectify the issue, while also training staff to recognize the signs of fraud.
“My advice to anyone is go check your federal student aid account,” said Taylor. “You never know when you’re going to be the one.”
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