The Department of Education has completed a one-time fraud detection review of all 2026–27 FAFSA applications submitted before real-time fraud screening was implemented. Following this review, approximately 300,000 FAFSA applications have been placed into Verification Tracking Group V5 due to indicators associated with suspected fraud risk.
Schools will receive system-generated ISIR transactions for affected students, and institutions should be prepared to review these applications under V5 verification requirements.
The Department also clarified that fraud screening is not limited to initial FAFSA submissions. Any student who submits a new online correction may also be evaluated for fraud risk if their application has not already undergone screening. When applicable, fraud-related comment codes will appear on the resulting transaction after the correction is processed.
To prevent duplicate verification, applications already selected through the Department’s one-time fraud detection review will be considered previously evaluated and will not be flagged again through subsequent correction activity.
Learn more about the Department’s FASFA real-time fraud detection initiative here.