Financial aid scams are on the rise in the United States during a time when record numbers of first-time freshmen are attending college and nontraditional students are returning to school. Due to the massive increase in the number of online classes, the fine-tuning of technology, and the cloak of anonymity provided by the internet, slick criminals are committing student loan fraud in record numbers. On top of that, the stakes are high because a truly staggering amount of student loan money is up for grabs. According to Khalfani-Cox (2010), with thousands of colleges and universities potentially eligible to receive federal money, and more than $100 billion in new aid disbursed annually to some 14 million borrowers, the Department of Education "faces a formidable challenge in ensuring that...funds reach the intended recipients," Deputy Inspector General Mary Mitchelson said in a recent report. Prior to 2005, colleges and universities were disallowed from participating in government student loan programs if more than 50 percent of the school's students were taking online classes. However, this is no longer the case, and the overwhelming majority of schools in the U.S. have numerous online course offerings. However, crooks who pose as students are taking advantage of this relatively new rule change. Amid tough economic times, an increasing number of these students are actually what are known as "Pell-runners"-people who disappear as soon as they receive the proceeds of their Pell grants or student loans (Lewin, 2011). The 'fake student' scam is also on the rise, and the financial payoff is extremely lucrative if the criminals manage to elude capture by authorities. Trenda Lynn Halton, of Peoria, Ariz., recruited 64 "straw students" to pretend that they enrolled in Rio Salado College in Phoenix in order to get more than half a million dollars worth of Stafford Loans and Pell Grant funds (Khalfani-Cox, 2010). Halton was eventually caught, received a sentence of 41 months in federal prison, must pay more than $500,000 in restitution to the United States Department of Education, and was ordered to complete 100 hours worth of community service. Professional crooks are not the only ones who scam the system. In fact, some legitimately-enrolled college students perpetrate financial aid fraud and attempt to take their illegal slice of the pie. Such is alleged to be the case with a former Harvard senior, Adam B. Wheeler, who now faces criminal charges for falsifying documents to get into the Ivy League school and roughly $45,000 in scholarships, grants and financial aid, according to The Boston Globe (Khalfani-Cox, 2010). Student loan fraud is a growing problem during an unfortunate time when millions of real students badly need the money from federal and private sources. However, this essay is has not ended quite yet, because many other fraudulent schemes exist that serve no purpose other than to steal financial aid funds. Stay tuned for the upcoming second part of this two-part essay. work-cited.txt