(Excerpts from  Los Angeles Times)

• S. education officials issued a warning Thursday to thousands of colleges and universities across the nation to be on alert for fraud after California authorities uncovered a massive scam attempt involving 65,000 federal financial aid applications filed by fake community college students.
• The Times reported this week that the California Student Aid Commission found 105 of 116 colleges in the California Community Colleges system had been targeted by questionable financial aid applications — including Cerritos, Pasadena, Chaffey and eight of the nine campuses in the Los Angeles Community College District.
• The colleges are investigating how many students are actually fake bot accounts and whether they inadvertently disbursed any financial aid to fictitious students. The U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General also is investigating.
• Colleges that disburse federal financial aid to ineligible applicants must return the funds to the U.S. Department of Education.
• “Federal Student Aid is working with law enforcement partners and postsecondary institutions to stop the suspected financial aid fraud,” Richard Cordray, Federal Student Aid chief operating officer, said in a statement.
• “While the investigation is ongoing, our work includes determining what, if any, federal taxpayer dollars were disbursed and recovering those funds,” he said. “We notified financial aid administrators at thousands of institutions across the country and recommended actions they can take to prevent fraud, as well as protect individuals. We also will take the necessary steps to prevent this type of suspected fraud in the future.”