00:00Today, we are announcing the results, the first results, of Operation Ghostbusters,
00:06a nationwide effort to stop a major fraud scheme targeting federal student aid,
00:12low-income Americans, and the American taxpayer.
00:15It is schemes like this one that President Trump, Vice President Vance,
00:21and the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud are resolved to defeat.
00:26Operation Ghostbusters is working to stop them.
00:30Let me briefly describe how this scheme works.
00:34First, criminals steal the identities of real Americans.
00:39They specifically target Americans who haven't attended college.
00:43They use those stolen identities to create ghost students to apply to colleges across the country.
00:51Next, they apply for federal student aid using those same stolen identities.
00:58And if successful at duping the Department of Education,
01:02Ed then sends the aid money to the college where the ghost student is enrolled.
01:07After tuition and fees are deducted,
01:10the leftover federal funds are deposited directly into bank accounts controlled by fraudsters.
01:15And in a flash, the money vanishes, often overseas to places like Kenya.
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