美国司法部近日公布了一起涉及人工智能技术的教育资助欺诈案件。检方已在内布拉斯加州、弗吉尼亚州和新泽西州起诉五名涉案人员，并查扣超过75万美元的加密货币资产。调查显示，一个与肯尼亚相关的犯罪网络利用被盗身份信息伪造学生身份，通过人工智能完成课程作业、模拟在线上课，从而骗取联邦助学金。
案件源于美国教育部监察长办公室发现的一系列异常数据模式。随后，联邦调查局（FBI）对相关账户进行追踪，并沿着资金流向查明了美国境内外多个银行账户及加密货币钱包。美国司法部将此次打击行动命名为“幽灵克星行动”（Operation Ghostbusters），这是联邦政府针对“幽灵学生”欺诈开展的大规模执法行动中的首批成果。
检方表示，犯罪分子利用窃取的美国公民个人身份信息注册虚假学生账户，申请联邦学生资助并入读大学及社区学院。为了避免被学校发现，这些虚构学生会借助人工智能自动填写申请材料、完成课程作业，甚至在部分情况下制造出真实学生参与在线课堂的假象。
美国司法部国家反欺诈执法部门助理司法部长科林·麦克唐纳表示，一些“幽灵学生”看起来确实在正常修读课程，甚至能够在网络课堂中模拟真人出席情况，以欺骗学校相信其为真实学生。犯罪团伙的目标是尽可能让这些虚假身份持续留在学校，从而不断获取学期性资助资金。
调查发现，部分涉案金额相当可观。根据司法部披露的信息，其中一名被告利用多家金融机构账户接收了超过700笔欺诈性助学金退款，总金额约144万美元。另有涉案人员通过300多个虚假学生账户相关资金流获得超过100万美元存款。
联邦调查局表示，目前已经确认类似“幽灵学生”计划造成的损失超过3200万美元，而实际损失金额很可能远高于这一数字。
更令人担忧的是，美国教育部已识别出超过83万个疑似利用美国公民个人身份信息建立的联邦学生资助账户。如果这些账户最终被证实均属于虚假学生，司法部估计相关损失可能接近1.3亿美元。目前，检方已向全美26个联邦调查局分局移交约50起相关线索。
调查人员介绍，这类骗局通常从购买和获取个人信息开始。犯罪团伙特别偏好那些高中毕业后直接进入职场、从未接受大学教育的人群。由于教育部缺乏其高等教育记录作为交叉验证依据，虚假申请更容易通过审核。诈骗者随后填写联邦学生资助申请表，向大学和社区学院递交入学申请。
一旦虚假学生被录取，助学金会首先支付学校学费和相关费用，剩余资金则被转入诈骗团伙控制的银行账户。司法部称，还有一些美国居民充当“资金中转人”，帮助处理赃款流转。
随着人工智能技术发展，此类欺诈活动正变得越来越隐蔽。司法部认为，该犯罪模式至少自2021年起便已存在，而AI工具的普及显著提升了诈骗效率和隐蔽性。检方指出，此次在肯尼亚完成的加密货币查扣行动，也是当地首例类似国际资产扣押案件。
在许多情况下，身份被盗用的受害者往往多年后才发现问题。当政府开始追讨本不属于他们的学生贷款时，个人信用记录可能已经受到损害。执法人员表示，虽然教育部能够帮助受害者处理后续问题，但整个过程本不应发生在任何无辜公民身上。
面对不断升级的欺诈风险，美国教育部今年引入了新的身份验证机制。申请人需要实时向摄像头展示政府签发的身份证件，由自动化系统进行审核。系统会为每名申请者生成风险评级，被认定为高风险的申请将直接遭到拒绝。
美国政府认为，自动化审核有助于在不增加大量人力的情况下打击欺诈行为。然而，新系统也引发了一些争议。今年夏季，教育部曾证实一项技术故障导致部分申请表未能正确附加风险评估结果，相关申请随后被重新处理。
教育领域倡导人士则担忧，自动审核可能误伤真实学生，特别是来自低收入家庭的申请者。部分学生可能缺乏驾照等常见身份证明文件，而被错误标记后不仅需要额外核查，还可能导致助学金发放延迟。教育界人士呼吁高校保持警惕，在打击欺诈与保障真实学生权益之间取得平衡。
对于误判比例究竟有多高，美国政府目前尚未公布具体数字。相关项目负责人表示，目前仍无法量化未来需要进行线下身份验证的人数规模，但希望各高校能够持续关注那些被系统错误识别的真实学生，避免他们因技术问题失去应得的教育资助机会。
本文由 AI图鉴自动抓取并翻译，版权归原作者所有；如需查看原文请点下方链接。
The United States Department of Justice has recently published a case of fraud in education financing involving artificial intelligence techniques. The prosecution has indicted five persons in Nebraska, Virginia and New Jersey and seized over $750,000 in encrypted currency assets. The survey revealed that a Kenyan-related criminal network used stolen identity information to fake student identity, through artificial intelligence to complete courses and simulate online classes, thereby stealing federal grants.
The case originated from a series of unusual data patterns discovered by the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Department of Education. Subsequently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tracked the related accounts and followed the flow of funds by identifying multiple bank accounts and encrypted currency wallets inside and outside the United States. The United States Department of Justice named the operation Operation Ghostbusters, the first results of a large-scale federal government enforcement operation against ghost student fraud.
According to the prosecution, criminals have used stolen personal identity information of United States citizens to register false student accounts and apply for federal student funding to be incorporated into universities and community colleges. In order to avoid being discovered by schools, these fictional students automatically fill out application materials with artificial intelligence, complete coursework and even, in part, create the illusion of real students participating in online classes.
Colin McDonald, Assistant Attorney General, National Anti-Fraud Law Enforcement Department, United States Department of Justice, stated that some “phantom students” did appear to be attending regular courses and could even simulate real-person attendance in online classrooms to deceive schools to believe that they were real students. The aim of criminal gangs is to keep these false identities in school as far as possible, thereby continuously obtaining financial support for the term.
The investigation found that some of the amounts involved were considerable. According to information disclosed by the Ministry of Justice, one of the defendants received more than 700 fraudulent refunds for grants, amounting to approximately US$ 1.44 million, using the accounts of various financial institutions. Another person involved obtained over $1 million in deposits through over 300 fraudulent student account-related funds.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), losses such as “ghost students” have now been identified at over $32 million, while the actual losses are likely to be much higher.
More worryingly, the United States Department of Education has identified more than 830,000 federal student support accounts suspected of using personal identity information from United States citizens. If these accounts are ultimately proven to be false students, the Ministry of Justice estimates that the related losses could be close to $130 million. At present, the Prosecution has handed over approximately 50 relevant leads to 26 FBI stations throughout the United States.
Investigators described such schemes as usually starting with the purchase and acquisition of personal information. Criminal gangs have a particular preference for those who, after graduation from high school, have entered the workplace and have never received university education. Since the Ministry of Education lacks its records of higher education as a cross-certification basis, false applications are more easily cleared. The fraudster then fills out the application form for federal student support and submits the application to universities and community colleges.
Once a false student is admitted, the grant will first pay school fees and related expenses and the remaining funds are transferred to bank accounts controlled by the fraud syndicate. According to the Department of Justice, there are also United States residents who act as “transferrs of funds” to help with the flow of stolen funds.
With the development of artificial intelligence technology, such fraudulent activities are becoming increasingly hidden. According to the Ministry of Justice, the crime pattern has existed since at least 2021, and the prevalence of AI tools has significantly increased fraud efficiency and secrecy. The prosecution notes that this encrypted currency seizure operation in Kenya was the first such international asset seizure case in Kenya.
In many cases, victims of identity theft often discover problems years later. Personal credit records may have been compromised when the Government began to recover student loans that did not belong to them. Law enforcement officials indicated that while the Ministry of Education was able to help victims deal with follow-up issues, the entire process should not have occurred on any innocent citizen.
In the face of the escalating risk of fraud, the United States Department of Education introduced new identification mechanisms this year. Applicants are required to present government-issued identity documents to the camera in real time, which is reviewed by the automated system. The system generates a risk rating for each applicant and applications identified as high risk are directly rejected.
The United States Government believes that automated audits help to combat fraud without adding significant manpower. However, the new system has also given rise to some controversy. This summer, the Ministry of Education confirmed that a technical malfunction had led to the incorrect addition of some of the application forms to the risk assessment results, which were subsequently reprocessed.
Advocates in the field of education, for their part, are concerned about self-censorship, which may result in the injury of real students, especially applicants from low-income families. Some students may lack common identification documents, such as driver's licences, and mislabelling may not only require additional verification, but may also result in delays in the award of grants. Educators have called for higher education institutions to be vigilant in striking a balance between combating fraud and safeguarding the rights and interests of real students.
The United States Government has not yet published specific figures on how high the rate of miscarriage of justice is. The project manager indicated that the size of the number of people who would need to be identified online for the future of quantization was still not possible, but hoped that universities would continue to pay attention to the real students who had been misidentified by the system, so that they would not lose the opportunities for educational support due to technical problems.
Auto-fetched and translated by AI Atlas. All rights belong to the original author.