Emmanuel University Responds to Reports of Fraud Using Student Information

Officials at Emmanuel University say as far as they are aware, there has been no recent security breach at the school affecting the personal information of students.

The school recently posted a statement on social media stating they have received several inquiries and have been made aware of social media posts regarding incidents of the fraudulent use of personal information, which may have affected former or currently enrolled Emmanuel Students.

According to their statement, fraudulent W-2’s have reportedly been created for businesses operating in Georgia for people who do not work for that business.

School officials say it appears that some of the individuals affected attended Emmanuel or took classes at Emmanuel as dual enrollment students.

They say there was a data security incident at Emmanuel that occurred in the Fall of 2023, but that incident affected only some students enrolled in the Fall Semester of 2023, and all students affected were notified and appropriate action was taken at that time.

There was also a potential data incident at Emmanuel several years ago which may have impacted students on a statewide and federal level.

That incident, officials said, involved an information system used to process financial aid requests for state and federal financial aid.

However, the school stated that while the system is also used by a number of public institutions, Emmanuel does not transmit information with that system, so the University never received any specific reports of specific students affected by that potential breach.

Officials said in the published statement that at this time, Emmanuel University is not aware of a data security incident that would have resulted in the release of the personal information of those affected by this recent fraudulent activity.

They concluded that since Emmanuel has not received the list of those affected, nor know the source of a possible data release, the University is unable to notify anyone or take any action related to these reports at this time.