With fraud prevention becoming an increasingly critical issue, the Department of Education announced it will implement new measures to protect the FAFSA application.
In an April 15 Electronic Announcement, the Department (ED) announced that it will implement real-time identity fraud detection for the FAFSA application by screening and assessing risk as students and families complete the form. Legitimate students will proceed through the FAFSA process quickly, while a small portion of applicants will be required to complete additional steps to confirm their identity as part of the submission process.
If the Department is unable to confirm an applicant’s identity – either because the applicant is unable or unwilling to complete the online identity confirmation process – it will result in a rejected institutional student information record (ISIR).
Applicants will be placed in one of four risk categories upon the conclusion of the real-time screening:
- Low Risk
- Moderate Risk
- High Risk
- Highest Risk
New comment codes and text will be generated for these rejected ISIRS. The announcement includes a chart outlining the comment code, the comment text, and any action needed to resolve for each scenario.
The Department will screen all previously submitted 2026-27 FAFSA forms, which may result in additional transactions being selected for V5 verification, when fraud risk is identified.
