In response to the nationwide increase in application fraud, Thomas Edison State University (TESU) is protecting its students and resources by implementing Voyatek’s Application Fraud Firewall.  

Scammers posing as fake students – AKA “ghost students”— are inundating institutions across the U.S. with fraudulent applications. Using stolen or fabricated identities, ghost students successfully enroll, only to disappear—tying up course seats, stealing financial aid, and creating administrative nightmares for resource-strapped schools. 

Institutions that specialize in online education, like TESU, are prime targets for application fraud. Exploiting the virtual learning environment, scammers use AI bots to simulate class attendance and remain undetected long enough to cash financial aid checks and secure official college-issued email addresses.  

Voyatek’s Application Fraud Firewall leverages sophisticated AI identity verification and fraud models that analyze admissions, financial aid, and enrollment data to identify fraud with precision and accuracy. The solution includes Socure’s Predictive Document Verification as part of its IAL2-compliant platform, surpassing Department of Education FAFSA requirements for identity verification and fraud prevention. 

“To stop application fraud without creating frustrating roadblocks for legitimate students, colleges need intelligent solutions that will verify who is really behind the computer,” said John Van Weeren, VP, Higher Education at Voyatek. “By implementing Application Fraud Firewall, TESU is ensuring that its programs remain accessible to real online learners, not ghost students.”  

Application Fraud Firewall’s best-in-class predictive models analyze and correlate every facet of a digital identity, utilizing over 1000 data sources, 17,000 features, 8 billion rows of data, and a continuous feedback loop of decision outcomes from thousands of customers worldwide. 

Valuable insights uncovered by Voyatek’s fraud prevention solutions have helped Voyatek’s clients reduce their manual review workloads by up to 80% and realize a 10x return on investment in the first year of deployment. 

Learn more about Application Fraud Firewall here. 

About Voyatek

Voyatek (formerly GCOM Software LLC, DBA Voyatek), delivers outcome-driven technology solutions to public sector agencies and higher education institutions nationwide. With a focus on helping our higher education clients develop a clear line-of-sight between their strategic goals and day-to-day operations, Voyatek designs and builds customized analytics platforms to support data visualization, forecasting, and data informed decision making.