GCD AI RADAR
incidents/AIR-2025-0151

Scammers Use ChatGPT to Impersonate Students in Financial Aid Fraud

AI-enabled attack4 Confirmed real-world lossAI phishing / social engineering

Scammers utilized generative AI to pass identity verification and submit fraudulent college applications across California community colleges. The scheme resulted in significant financial losses and strained educational administration.

Details

type
AI-enabled attack
Attackers used AI as a meaningful part of a cyberattack against someone else.
categories
  • AI phishing / social engineering
    Phishing, lures and social engineering produced or personalised at scale with AI.
owasp llm top 10
no entry for these categories
mitre atlas
Both rows are derived from the type and categories (OWASP 2025 edition, ATLAS release 2026.09), not classified per record. How
severity
4 · Confirmed real-world loss
Financial loss, PHI/PII breach, safety impact or regulatory action.
targets
Enterprise deployment
products
ChatGPT
incident date
22 Apr 2025
first reported
22 Apr 2025
origin
AI Incident Database
Derived from the AI Incident Database (CC BY-SA 4.0).
classifier confidence
0.90 · published at or above 0.80; see the methodology
tags
identity-fraud · generative-ai · financial-aid
record
created 2026-10-18 06:33Z · updated 2026-10-18 06:59Z · json

Sources · 1

  1. 2025-04-22
    Scammers Reportedly Use AI Tools to Impersonate Students and Obtain Federal Aid
    AI Incident Database · incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1038

Titles and links belong to their publishers. The summary above is written by GCD AI RADAR in its own words; data is CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related incidents