Know Your Student
Active threat

How much is ghost student
fraud costing you?

Estimate your institution's annual financial exposure to enrollment fraud using publicly available DOE data.

Your institution
5,000
30%
60%
Estimated annual exposure
Ghost students —
Pell clawback risk —
Lost seat value —
Total exposure
—
estimated per academic year
Fraud rate range (% of online enrollment)
—
Conservative
—
Midpoint estimate
—
High-risk scenario
Verification ROI
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Break even at — ghost students caught

At $2 per verification across your entire enrollment, identity verification pays for itself after catching a small fraction of estimated fraudulent enrollments.

Data sources & methodology

Estimation only. This calculator provides rough estimates based on publicly available data. Actual fraud rates vary significantly by institution type, geography, enrollment model, and program mix. Verifa does not guarantee specific fraud detection rates or financial outcomes.

  • Maximum Pell Grant: $7,395/year (2025–26 award year, U.S. Department of Education)
  • Fraud rates by institution type: Community colleges 5–15% of online enrollment (CA CCC Chancellor's Office, 2024); State universities 2–5%; For-profit 3–8%; Private 1–3%
  • Average cost per course seat: $1,500 (derived from average community college per-credit tuition + institutional cost of instruction)
  • Average courses per ghost student: 2.5 (DOE OIG prosecuted case data)
  • Clawback liability: institutions — not students — return fraudulently disbursed funds (34 CFR 668.22)

Protect your next enrollment cycle

Pilot programs available now — verify student identity before aid is disbursed.

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