FinCEN issues an alert urging FIs to strengthen detection and reporting of fraud targeting U.S. federal student aid programmes, warning of identity theft, “ghost” students, synthetic identities 

The alert says criminals exploit open-admission and online courses to enrol fictitious or complicit students, keep them nominally active and divert financial-aid refunds into accounts unrelated to the intended recipients. The proceeds may then be moved through money mules, shell companies, peer-to-peer transfers and digital assets, while identity-theft victims can be left with fraudulent debts or lose their own eligibility for student support…