New Software Provides S.A.F.E. Protection From Fraudulent Higher Ed Applicants

Lawrenceville, GA — Maurice Simpkins, president of A.M. Simpkins and Associates, is proud
to announce their new software solution for higher education institutions who are experiencing
an uptick in new fraudulent student accounts and activity since the pandemic. Student
Application Fraud Examination (S.A.F.E.) is the much-anticipated product of this innovative
inventor who has a seasoned portfolio in the Higher Ed industry. This application promises to
“safeguard your institutional assets with fraud identification and prevention and stop scammers
before they access your institutional assets.”
Across the country, phishers are leaving their indelible stain. The pandemic of the past two years
brought about a whole new brand of emboldened scammers. According to an article from
September 2021, featured in World News Era, “As the fall semester opened, details emerged
about the California Community Colleges’ system receiving more than 65,000 financial
applications suspected of being from fraudulent bots. Officials there also considered the
applications likely an attempt to tap into financial aid and coronavirus relief funding.” San
Joaquin Delta College is among the roughly 100 California community colleges that were
targeted. They confirmed 425 student accounts to be fraudulent and over a thousand more are
under investigation.
Previous articles in USA Today paint a similar picture. “Thousands of Michigan residents have
collected Pell Grants without attending classes in the past year, costing the state’s colleges
millions of dollars that have to be paid back to the federal government. At Henry Ford
Community College, $4.1 million — about 10 percent of the money the college received in Pell
Grants — needs to be paid back to the U.S. Department of Education.” These Pell jumpers leave
a trail of financial destruction behind them, with taxpayers footing the bill. By the time they have
identified a scam, it is too late, and they have issued payments to fraudulent accounts with no
way to recover the loss. Many colleges resort to increase tuition to compensate for their losses.