Southeast Minnesota colleges are contending with a new kind of fraud: Ghost students

Southeast Minnesota colleges are contending with a new kind of fraud: Ghost students

ROCHESTER — Last year, officials at Minnesota State College Southeast were heartened by a gratifying trend. Spring enrollment numbers were up — way up. It was a mirage. Many of the students weren’t real. They were “ghost students.” In all, the college ended up dropping 84 fake students — all believed to be part of a scam to access and abscond with financial aid money. The ploy represents a new kind of enrollment fraud that U.S. and area colleges…