Fraud rings are enrolling fake students at scale, claiming Pell Grants and federal loans, then vanishing. Vouched verifies every applicant is a real, live person in seconds, without adding friction for the students you actually want.
See how Vouched keeps ghost students out of your enrollment pipeline. We'll review your current process and show you where fraud slips through.
Identity verification trusted across regulated industries
Ghost students (sometimes called "Pell runners") use stolen or synthetic identities to enroll in courses, collect grants and loans, and disappear before anyone notices. Remote enrollment and online learning make it easy to run hundreds of fake applications from anywhere, and generative AI now makes forged IDs and faces cheaper than ever.
Fraudsters go where the checks are weakest. If your institution looks like any of these, you're already a target.
Every ghost student distorts your data, drains staff time and takes a seat from a real learner.
Fake enrollments fill high-demand courses and waitlists, pushing out the students your mission is built to serve.
Inflated headcounts and phantom drop-offs undermine decisions about faculty hiring, sections and curriculum.
Admissions, financial aid and faculty lose hours chasing unresponsive "students" and manually reviewing suspicious files.
Fraud headlines and aid program findings erode trust with students, regulators and funding partners.
One check isn't enough against organized fraud. Vouched combines document, biometric and risk signals to confirm every applicant is who they claim to be, and that they're really there.
Authenticate driver's licenses, passports and state IDs, extract data automatically and catch tampered or forged documents.
Match the applicant's face to their ID and confirm a live person is present, blocking photos, masks, replays and deepfakes.
Proprietary fraud models flag synthetic IDs and AI-generated faces that slip past human reviewers.
Surface VPNs, mismatched locations, disposable emails and suspicious phone numbers behind the application.
Spot the same face, ID or device reused across many applications and stop fraud rings, not just individual fakes.
Trigger a quick re-check for flagged students or at key moments, like before financial aid is released.
Verification is embedded directly in your application or enrollment portal, on any device.
The student snaps a photo of their ID and a selfie. Most real students finish in under 10 seconds.
Low-risk applicants pass automatically. Suspicious ones are stepped up or routed to your team for review.
Re-verify identity before aid is released so fraud is caught before money leaves your institution.
A ghost student is a fake or impersonated applicant who enrolls to collect financial aid, such as Pell Grants or federal loans, with no intention of attending. They're often created in bulk by organized fraud rings using stolen or synthetic identities.
No. Vouched is designed for low friction: most real applicants complete ID and selfie verification in seconds from their phone or laptop, and only higher-risk applications are stepped up for additional checks.
Most institutions verify at application or enrollment, then re-verify flagged students before aid disbursement. Vouched integrates with your existing application portal or SIS workflow via SDKs and APIs.
Yes. Vouched's liveness detection and proprietary fraud models are built to catch presentation attacks, AI-generated faces and manipulated documents.
Talk to a Vouched student aid fraud expert about protecting your next enrollment cycle.
