Pilot Project & College Participation

Created by Patricia Donohue
Last updated: Jun 12, 2018

College participation in the fight to prevent and combat fraud against fraud is critical to the overall success of the campaign.

Spam Filter Pilot 

  • Top 4 colleges attacked by fraud
  • Data used in deep dive analysis
  • Identified trends for the model
  • Provide insight on motivation
  • Submitting bad apps monthly
  • Participating in ongoing research


College Participation

Participation from ALL colleges is critical to success of model

  • Regular monitoring of spam filter
  • Making determination of fraud status
  • Support continuous learning of model

Understand the motivations of spammers


Out for financial gain

As a system, we can change how we think about cyber crime and fraudulent applications in a way that contributes positively to finding a solution, rather than shutting down the conversation out of fear.


Submitting Fraud Applications for Research

  • Must be in the required format
  • Send other info in a separate file.


Item: Confirmation # of suspected bad apps.
File Format:  TXT File
Naming Convention: CollegeMISCode_Fraud_mmddyy.txt

Confirmation numbers ONLY

One (1) confirmation number per line in .txt file


Best Practices

  • Review onboarding processes and auto-response emails
  • Educate staff to identify fraud patterns & trends
  • Ensure applicants are legitimate students before issuing .edu email addresses
  • Remove ways for spammers to get into our system


Under-development

  • Final phase of web service API and prediction service
  • User interface integration into Administrator
  • CCCApply Administrator system upgrade
  • Enhancing Download Client for fraud status flag


Future Enhancements

  • Email notifications to colleges to monitor filter
  • Filter interface adjustments