<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Adam,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">We are experiencing it, too. We are handling it in house and it's a very manual process. Our admissions staff look closely for conflicting or suspicious information and if it appears at all questionable, we put a hold on the account and send an email requesting an identity verification via Zoom. That has stopped a lot of it. We'll sometimes get an email or phone call back stating that they are in an area where they don't have great internet access so they can't do a Zoom call so could they just verify via email and when we respond that we need to do a face and ID verification, we never hear from them again. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">We've also started asking faculty to include a minimal identity verification assignment in online courses that students must complete before moving on to the rest of the course. We ask that they have the student do a video or photo of themselves showing their face and a photo ID. It's done during the first week of class so that we can identify potential FA fraud. Those fraudulent students will often disappear and then are reported for non-attendance before we disburse aid and then we can also put the identity verification hold on preventing additional registration.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">It's not perfect and some still get through, but we do catch a lot this way. I'm sure they will continue to get better at it, unfortunately.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Keila</div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><p style="padding:0px;border:0px;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;margin:40px 0px 18px;color:rgb(68,68,68);width:367px"><a href="https://www.wosc.edu/" title="Open the WOSC Website (opens a new window)" style="margin:0px 14px 0px 0px;padding:21px 9px 21px 0px;border-top:0px;border-right:3px solid rgb(0,112,0);border-left:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,86,0);float:left;width:102px;border-bottom:none!important" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.wosc.edu/img/W_icon_gold-white-green_sm.png" alt="Western Oklahoma State College Logo" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:1px solid transparent;font:inherit;vertical-align:middle;max-width:98%;border-radius:10px"></a><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:900;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Keila Manos</span><b>, <span style="padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:11px;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Ph.D.</span></b><br>Vice President of Student Affairs<br><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"><a href="https://www.wosc.edu/" title="Visit wosc.edu" style="margin:9px 0px 0px;padding:0px;border:none;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,86,0)" target="_blank">Western Oklahoma State College</a><br><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Western+Oklahoma+State+College+Main+Building,+Altus,+OK+73521/@34.6694147,-99.3372287,18.87z/data=!3m1!5s0x87ab653a7bb9cc6f:0xd1063be3c99517db!4m5!3m4!1s0x87ab653a7bbd0569:0xc65b112658cc9ef!8m2!3d34.6689441!4d-99.336963" title="Google Maps of Western!" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:none;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,86,0)" target="_blank">2801 N. Main St. <b style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px">|</b> Altus, OK 73521</a><br></span><span title="Office Phone" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">(580) 477-7925</span> <b style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px">|</b> Office: C-7<br><a href="https://www.wosc.edu/facebook" title="WOSC Facebook (opens a new window)" style="padding:0px;border-top:0px;border-right:0px;border-left:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,86,0);border-bottom:none!important" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.wosc.edu/img/icons/social-facebook.png" alt="wosc facebook" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:1px solid transparent;font:inherit;vertical-align:middle;max-width:98%;border-radius:10px;width:30px"></a> <a href="https://www.wosc.edu/instagram" title="WOSC Instagram (opens a new window)" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-top:0px;border-right:0px;border-left:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,86,0);border-bottom:none!important" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.wosc.edu/img/icons/social-instagram.png" alt="wosc instagram" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:1px solid transparent;font:inherit;vertical-align:middle;max-width:98%;border-radius:10px;width:30px"></a> <a href="https://www.wosc.edu/twitter" title="WOSC Twitter (opens a new window)" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-top:0px;border-right:0px;border-left:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,86,0);border-bottom:none!important" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.wosc.edu/img/icons/social-twitter.png" alt="wosc twitter" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:1px solid transparent;font:inherit;vertical-align:middle;max-width:98%;border-radius:10px;width:30px"></a> <a href="https://snapchat.com/add/woscevents" title="WOSC Snapchat (opens a new window)" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-top:0px;border-right:0px;border-left:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,86,0);border-bottom:none!important" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.wosc.edu/img/icons/social-snapchat.png" alt="wosc snapchat" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:1px solid transparent;font:inherit;vertical-align:middle;max-width:98%;border-radius:10px;width:30px"></a></p><p title="Western's Mission Statement" style="padding:10px 0px 0px;border:0px;font-style:italic;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:x-small;line-height:inherit;font-family:sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px 0px 18px;color:rgb(68,68,68);max-width:377px">The Mission of Western Oklahoma State College is to provide high quality education while ensuring equity, supporting student success, and empowering individuals to become productive members of diverse local, regional, and global communities.</p></div><div><br></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Feb 26, 2026 at 9:52 AM Johnson, Adam <<a href="mailto:adam.johnson@swosu.edu">adam.johnson@swosu.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-1250565168221240063">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Good morning!<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">SWOSU has seen a growing number of fraudulent applications come through in the past several months. While others were easier to spot/track, they are becoming increasingly more difficult to identify.
</span>In a recent example, the fraudulent applicant used someone else’s identity to gain admission (and Financial Aid), and someone is actually submitting assignments in their enrolled courses (asynchronous fully online).
<span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Here’s my question for you all - what are you doing to help prevent these kinds of fraudulent applications coming through? Are you using some kind of in-house process to verify every student’s identity or partnering
with an outside vendor? If in-house, is the process in your Admissions area or Financial Aid office (or both/other)?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you for your insight! <u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://mysignature.io/?utm_source=logo" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:blue"><img border="0" width="165" height="72" style="width: 1.7166in; height: 0.75in;" id="m_-1250565168221240063Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:ii_19c9abd695a4cff311" alt="created with MySignature.io"></span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0.1pt"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:rgb(41,63,111)">Dr. Adam Johnson</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0.1pt"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:rgb(0,0,1)">Vice-President for Student Services</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:rgb(0,0,1)">p:
<u><a href="tel:580-774-3063" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,1)">580-774-3</span></a>177</u></span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:rgb(0,0,1)">f:
<u>580-774-7035</u> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:rgb(0,0,1)">w:
</span><u><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:blue"><a href="https://www.swosu.edu/" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">swosu.edu</span></a></span></u><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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</span><u><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:rgb(5,99,193)"><a href="mailto:adam.johnson@swosu.edu" target="_blank"><span lang="PT-BR" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">adam.johnson@swosu.edu</span></a></span></u><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Garamond,serif;color:rgb(0,0,1)">
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