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Treasure Valley Community College

Eliminating 'ghost students' and ensuring seamless Salesforce integration

Treasure Valley Community College (TVCC) has been serving students since 1962 as an affordable, welcoming, and excellence-driven comprehensive community college. TVCC’s main campus is located in the heart of Ontario, Oregon, with other locations across Eastern Oregon and Western Idaho.

A caring staff and faculty serve more than 3,000 students annually. Students can find their path to success here: from two-year degree programs to career and technical training, college credit for high school students to healthcare certifications, aviation programs to thriving athletics, TVCC offers a welcoming environment to launch students into their futures.

Serving over 3,000 students annually, in the face of rising online / hybrid programmes, the college recognised an urgent need to safeguard its admissions processes against “ghost student” and financial aid theft

THE CHALLENGE

TVCC was facing several challenges: sourcing a digital identity verification and document fraud detection for online application processes, while ensuring a frictionless journey for genuine applicants. Most importantly the final solution needed to plugin seamlessly to existing processes with no disruption to services.

The Fraud Threat in Higher Education

Community colleges across the U.S. are increasingly vulnerable to so-called “ghost students” who are fraudsters using fake or synthetic identities with generative-AI in seconds to enrol online in their courses. Their goal is to secure financial-aid, credentials or access using these fake identity documents and they never attend a single class – stealing not only the opportunity from a genuine student, but large amounts of financial aid.

The shift to online and hybrid enrolment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic made it easy for fraudsters to commit this crime, no longer needing to prove their identity in person. Industry data shows that community colleges have been disproportionately targeted by fraudsters. In 2023 it was reported that 20 percent of community college applications in California in the previous year — about 460,000 — were fraudulent. Today, it’s reported that ‘Ghost students’ are responsible for stealing $1B in aid.

BUSINESS NEEDS

TVCC wanted to preserve its low-friction application process for potential students developed by the Admissions office but at the same time, they wanted to be proactive in detecting document fraud. TVCC also required a solution that could always adapt to the latest fraud threats in the future and integrate seamlessly with any technology stack.

The college required an identity verification solution that could: 

  • Detect synthetic identities and AI document fraud instantly.
  • Deter ghost-student enrolments at the point of application.
  • Integrate directly with Salesforce, where aid and admissions workflows are managed.
  • Maintain a low-friction experience for genuine applicants.

"After reviewing multiple vendors, choosing ID-Pal was an easy decision. It was one of the easiest apps to integrate into our Salesforce environment within my eight years working as an admin. We detected two fraudulent applications within hours of integration, and now we’re saving both staff hours and thousands of dollars annually."

Chase Van Weerdhuizen, Admissions Systems and International Services Manager
Treasure Valley Community College

THE SOLUTION

TVCC implemented ID-Pal for identity verification and chose a host of delivery options for students to verify their identity either via the Native App or Web App.

TVCC also deploys ID-Detect to conduct checks for the latest types of presentation attacks and to confirm three simple facts for each application: that a physical identity document is present, not a reproduction; that the document holder is a real person; and that the document holder is the person pictured in that identity document.

Finally ID-Pal has a dedicated Salesforce integration that means TVCC had the ability to go live in minutes with ID-Pal within their own Salesforce account, removing the need for costly integration work.

How TVCC uses ID-Pal

  1. Students verify their identity via mobile or browser where ID-Pal conducts instant biometric, document and database checks to verify their identity and address.
  2. At the same time, ID-Detect conducts checks for evidence of digitally manipulated documents, screen replays, portrait swops or photocopied IDs.
  3. Results sync with Salesforce, giving admissions and financial-aid teams real-time pass/fail visibility and essentially “quarantines” suspicious applications with a clear reason code, giving detailed insights for faster, more confident decisioning.

 

By placing AI-powered identity verification and document fraud detection at the heart of their admissions systems while prioritizing the need for an intuitive, easy application process, TVCC has delivered a robust solution to catch “ghost students” and prevent losses to fraud, aid which could be used by genuine students.

The Results

  • Fraud deterrent: The presence of a digital identity verification solution is now deterring fraudsters.
  • Zero disruption: Legitimate applicants verify in seconds.
  • Automation and efficiencies: Staff review outcomes directly in Salesforce and genuine students are onboarded seamlessly. The admission team can then focus on any applications that are flagged as suspicious.

"We’ve seen an unexpected benefit in verifying student names and birthdates upfront rather than later in our processes, which has improved the institution’s data integrity for departments such as Financial Aid and the Business office. It has also led to improved processing times for international applicants as we’ve been able to rely on it for passport verification. We can recommend ID-Pal as a solution to spotting the latest types of deepfake document fraud for higher education institutions.”

Chase Van Weerdhuizen, Admissions Systems and International Services Manager
Treasure Valley Community College

THE IMPACT

TVCC now prevents ghost-student enrolments and financial-aid theft while maintaining a welcoming application process.

The college has achieved:
• Streamlining of the application process for genuine students
• Automation of identity verification for the admissions team within Salesforce
• Reduction in fraud attempts using “ghost student” applications

CONCLUSION

Ghost-student and synthetic-identity fraud have become a serious threat to community colleges across the U.S. By adopting ID-Pal’s AI-powered verification suite, TVCC proactively protects its students, staff, and funding from financial-aid theft, setting a new standard for fraud prevention in higher education and community colleges.

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