FinCEN warns that organised fraud rings are using stolen identities, fraudulent applicants and sham college enrolments to obtain federal student-aid payments

The FinCEN Alert on Fraud Schemes Targeting Federal Student Aid examines activity that causes losses to government programmes and can prevent genuine students from enrolling in oversubscribed classes. Developed with the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General and the FBI, the alert provides behavioural and transactional indicators and asks financial institutions to use the key term FIN-2026-FSAFRAUD in related suspicious activity reports.