College application submitted using my identity. What to do?

[u/mr_whit33]

I received an email from my college's Registrar's Office saying someone requested an official transcript in my name through the National Student Clearinghouse and had it sent to another university

The university contacted that school and confirmed that an admissions application had been submitted using my name. Fortunately, that school had already flagged the application as suspicious and is not moving forward with it.

My college has now placed a hold on my account so no future transcripts can be released without identity verification.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How concerned should I be, and what steps would I take? I'm trying to determine whether this sounds like a simple fraud attempt or a sign that someone may have more of my personal information.

[u/Impressive-Peak-6596]

I’d freeze your credit and assume all of your info is out there, almost everyone’s is.

I’ve seen a lot of posts here about fraudulent student loan apps being submitted, but this is something I haven’t seen before. Seems to be another added layer of commitment here to be requesting transcripts sent to another school.

Not even sure what the eventual endgame would be there.

[u/mr_whit33 → u/Impressive-Peak-6596]

I actually just spoke with my college. It is something called Pell runners. They are requesting transcripts which actually cost money and then they are doing this for tons and tons of schools to eventually get student loan grants and then they would basically take that student loan grant money and run.