AI is Scamming M7 Admissions
- Eric Lucrezia
- Aug 16
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 21
When it comes to admissions consultants, you’re gonna want a human you can trust.
That’s always been true, but in the age of AI, fake news, and an explosion of bogus websites for both real and fictitious universities, the guidance and support of an experienced admissions consultant who’s been in the game for years before AI took over the internet is your reassurance that this won’t happen to you.
The other recent danger is the multitude of AI-powered essay writing websites, sprouting up on the internet like toxic mushrooms, promising to write your very own customized, perfect Harvard MBA admissions essay. These tools draw from existing content that result in plagiarized essays that could get you flagged for automatic rejection. Knowing that LLMs like ChatGPT scour the internet for text and images created by other people and reconstitute into something new - or perhaps repackaged is more accurate - this clearly violates the academic code of conduct for pretty much any reputable institution in the world. The risk of getting dinged isn’t worth it!
This week’s shocking Inside Higher Ed article explores the proliferation of not only fake university websites, but also fraudulent sites for the US Department of Education as well as various accreditation agencies. As IHE points out, “...the network uncovered by Inside Higher Ed reveals how the rise of generative AI is making it faster and easier for scammers to repackage an old ruse and deploy it on a much larger scale.”
What are scammers looking for? As always, it’s about money, but not only!
In most reported cases, they‘re stealing application fees from unwitting applicants for both admission but also on scholarship applications. In cases where victims have been convinced long enough to go through the charade of an admissions process, culminating in a congratulatory letter of admission and instructing them to pay tuition, the losses are much more significant. This is typically coupled with an attractive scholarship and a strict deadline to get victims to pay quickly. Other incentives for scammers include identity theft (for future financial theft), personal data sold for marketing purposes, and visa fraud, to name a few.
How do they do it?
Websites that look more and more real, coupled with chat bot features that enhance the illusion. Finally, cases have been reported where scammers go so far to have a real person answer the phone and respond to questions from the person hoping to be admitted to the school of their dreams. Let’s be honest, with admission to a prestigious school means that careers and futures are at stake, most applicants look forward to proudly sharing the good news of admission with family and friends. There are a lot of emotions involved, which means judgment can be clouded.
Think this won’t happen to you?
One professor at a California based university admitted he couldn’t tell if some of the pages of these websites were human-created or AI-generated. That’s how sophisticated LLM technology is getting repackaging content. OpenAI’s latest iteration, ChatGPT5, is self-described as the “smartest, fastest, most useful model yet.” Considering the efficiency and quality of these tools, scammers are casting the net out wide, cranking out hundreds of such fake websites with minimal effort hoping to catch as many victims as possible.
With the impressive brand power of some of the top-ranked MBA programs in the US, Europe, or Asia, trust is often extended automatically. Imagine exploring the website of your favorite M7 program, excitedly doing your due diligence as part of your research, but since this website is a really good fake, you’ve missed the deadline, or worse, entered your credit card info on a BS version of their website, not only paying a few hundred bucks for nothing, but also exposing yourself to future fraud, should they manage to store your payment details.
To my knowledge, fraudulent websites for the world’s best MBA programs have not yet been attempted by scammers, however, the potential is certainly there. While I imagine the powerful legal teams and political might of institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia would quickly stamp out such fraudulent practices, 2025 has already shown cracks in the foundation of many long established centers of higher learning and research. AI creates a problem of volume that means resources will have to be spent to chase the fraudsters.
Naturally, international students would be particularly vulnerable, since they are likely to be less familiar with the school, its campus, as well as the language, norms, culture, and country where it’s based. A seasoned admissions consultant who has deep ties to these schools, visited the campuses, and has cultivated relationships with the admissions folks is the best weapon against becoming a victim.
My friend, Petia Whitmore, who is a fellow member of AIGAC, the Association of International Admissions Consultants, pointed out in a recent LinkedIn post the risk of using AI in MBA admissions isn’t so much about getting flagged for using AI, it’s about unintentional plagiarism. At the last AIGAC Conference this May, which happened at Berkeley Haas, Stanford GSB, and UCLA Anderson, we welcomed 35 Directors of Admissions (or their delegates) from top MBA programs around the world, and many of them made it very clear they are not scanning using AI on their end to detect the use of AI on your essays; they’re checking for authenticity and what’s the opposite of that, in an academic context? Plagiarism! AI-based essay generation tools are playing with fire.
Is your M7 admission worth getting burned?
Something else, far less nefarious to watch out for is archived versions of real, official university websites. While Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude are great research tools, sometimes their results include older versions of the real website with information that is no longer true or out of date. As an Admissions Consultant, I’ve experienced this personally with a former client: on one instance while researching a top French MBA program, she was particularly inspired by a professor who taught a course that would serve her career path well. She later learned that the professor had passed away several years prior. Fortunately I had advised her to cross-check this information before she included it in one of her essays.
While democratizing AI has seemingly infinite applications and advantages, the search for truth may be the hardest to find. By no means is this article intended to fear monger, but to shine the spotlight on where we are in 2025 with respect to AI and higher education. As with any powerful tool, you need to read the safety manual before use.
As IHE points out, “... experts warn if these websites aren’t shut down—or similar ones continue to crop up—it could further weaken the public’s trust in higher education in an era marked by politicized attempts to discredit legitimate universities as overpriced and biased.”
To learn more about AIGAC, the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants, and its 200+ vetted member applicants, check out their website: www.AIGAC.org.
This article was written by Admissions Consultant, Eric Lucrezia, founder of Candidate Coach. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of AIGAC.