>> building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc7 news. ♪ kristen: hi there. i'm kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers" on abc7. every day, we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area and we get answers for you in real time. today, community colleges are being hit by a wave of fake enrollments, with scammers aiming to steal financial aid. by that is having a devastating

impact on the colleges, government, and legitimate students. we will get details from the vice chancellor of the community college system. also disneyland has just announced a new summer offer for california residents. how to take advantage of it, beat the crowd closures to keep track of. social media is driving the popularity of weight loss drug to new heights with shortages and price gouging reported around the world for ozampec. we want to explore the upside and downside to the weight loss medications and discover what is on the horizon. join us to separate fact from fiction is the chief of minimally invasive surgery thank you for joining us. do you find this new frontier of weight loss options promising? >> absolutely. it is a game changer. we have been waiting for this for decades.

kristen: easier, safer, and cheaper than surgery, right? let's talk about them. we have heard the most about is mpeg. ingredients and how they work. >> let's start with ozempic. it is one drug called saga mlitide. approved for weight loss by the fda. it's the same thing --

it is the same exact drug. just slightly higher dose. that one is approved specifically for weight loss. it's not for diabetes. but as you can understand, it's the exact same molecule. there is another drug that is very promising that is likely to be approved by the fda hopefully this year for weight loss. an more effective for weight loss than the other drugs. the recent study they need to get approval from the fda to be able to be used for obesity has shown the results we were expecting. we hope it will be approved by the end of the year. kristen: is that different from a pfizer pill i think they are working on that i read about? >> yes. that is also different

from the pfizer bill. -- pfizer pill. i would say probably every biotech company in the world right now has this family of drugs or is working on one. they are all the same basis. this hormone we discovered thanks to surgery that tells your brain that you no longer are hungry and makes the food passage slower through your gut and through your intestines so you don't feel as hungry. that is how they all work. there are slight differences between them. one has two different molecules in there. but the family of drugs all work the same way. kristen: are these drugs all prescription right now? at least the two letter approved? >> -- the two that are approved? >> absolutely. these are prescription drugs. this is a drug designed for

chronic management of obesity. when you have been struggling for this disease for a long time, you want a solution that is long-lasting to improve your health. this is not a drug that you should find a way to obtain without a prescription to lose a few pounds. kristen: i see. so you've got a wedding in one month, and i was on the time to go to try to get your friends the drug. can i ask you what are some of the side effects? people here about the good aspect. curbing your appetite and losing weight. what are some of the negative side effects? do they exist? >> absolutely. it is a drug. every drug has side effects and potential complications. the bottom line is, first of all, they are pretty mild. the fda has said the s effects are low enough that benefit of the drug is higher than the side effects. the main side effects are things like nausea, loading -- bloa

ting. general which is logical because this is a sort of got hormone. most of the effects are around your -- how you abdomen. kristen: right now, i understand there's kind of a shortage in supply and demand. do you think that ethically speaking, people should be taking it for weight loss or should it be reserved, even the active ingredient, be reserved right now so to speak for diabetes? >> so, that's an excellent question. it's actually a little bit more complex than that. in the sense that the shortage is actually only on the weight loss drug. the ozempic right now there is no shortage.

right now, the company keeps us informed on how things are going. and the shortage is only on the weight loss drug. and there are ways for the company to help manage these things. for example, when the shortages start to happen, the first thing they do is they start to low dose. this is a drug where you start on a low dose and every month you go up on the dose. once you are established on it, whether it is for weight loss or diabetes, you are on a higher dose. the company make sure that if you started the medication, there's enough supply of the high doses so that everybody who has started on the medication can keep having the medication. there's a shortage on the entry level, which means that you stop people from starting the medication, and therefore it just delays the start of a treatment, rather than interrupted treatment. kristen: how widespread weight loss drugs can get depends on whether insurance is going to cover it and the cost. where are we at with that?

what is your view on how widely available and easily affordable they should be? >> t my pay grade in terms of this country's health care system. but i would say that these drugs have the ability to help the health care system overall. if you start treating obesity early before you have hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, there is a significant cost saving in the equation in the long run for our health in general. as individuals and as a country. so these drugs in my mind should be broadly accessible and covered. it is very difficult right now to have -- it's just very hi miss. when you talk to insurance, patient in the clinic today was able to start with it, has been doing fantastic, she was 390 buzz when she started an

lost 70 pounds and now her insurance denied. she still has a lot of weight to lose. she is stuck because her insurance now says no all of a sudden. it is tough to plan things, when your insurance can turn on a dime like that. kristen: right. that discussion can take 10 minutes in itself. before i let you go, just want to ask you, no doubt this is something you would need to seek medical supervision for, right? >> absolutely. the way it has been studied in the way we use it in our clinic here is in conjunction with diet, exercise. we have a fantastic team here. we have four dietitians and five providers who will see you will see regularly. we have group sessions. we have things to help patients. because it's not a miracle pill. this is something you will take in the long run. you have to think about, what is the best way to try to get off of it at one point once you have reached a weight that

is closer to your ideal weight? not only is it a prescription drug, but ideally, in a program that will help you navigate this in the long run. kristen: thank you so much. really appreciate your time and expertise today. >> thank you. kristen: we will be right back with the scam that is costing california community colleges and the federal government tons of money, and the students, fake here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. the three what? the three ps? what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price.

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kristen: you've heard a lot about who are actually crooks using stolen identities to steal financial aid. this is costing the government and community colleges tons of money and hurting actual real-life students. joining us to talk about the scams and efforts to shut them down is the vice chancellor of educational programs for the los angeles community college district, dr. nicole lopez. thanks for your time today. >> thank you for having me. kristen: what is this enrollment scam to steal financial aid? how does it work? >> this scam has been going on as long as i have worked in higher education. essentially what happens is we have thieves out in the world that will obtain information

about real people and utilize it to apply for financial aid. in some cases, they are able to access that aid and receive some of the federal dollars that are available. in other cases, we are able to stop that from happening given our current efforts, using our i.t. systems. kristen: you said this is not a new scam. did you see a spike starting to go after the pandemic? >> during the pandemic, we did see an increase in the number of individuals attempting to receive federal financial aid. also some of the eight we were distribute into our college -- aid we were distributing in our college. kristen: that switching to online during the pandemic make it easier? >> it absolutely did. the number of online courses increased which created an opportunity for individuals to enroll in courses they did not have to physically show up for. kristen: right. the professor never saw the student. hard to keep track.

how prevalent is the scam these days? i hear up to 20% of applications are scams. does that track with you? does that sound about right? >> that number actually sounds high to me. we are one of the largest districts in the state of california and the nation. the last year, we've worked proactively with the state's chancellor's office to put mitigating practices in place to reduce it. we have seen a decrease as of late. kristen: let's talk about that. what are the things tha you are doing to discover -- that you are doing to discover these fake students that stole somebody else's idea never intended to enroll? team at the state chancellor's office and there's also the community college tech center. we also work with the office of inspector general. we are always looking at our processes for verification of our students. we have also requested some funding for systemwide security

at the state level from the governor and increased identity verification practices for studenta. -- for students. the first quarter of the academic year, we will be moving to two factor authentication systems. and we are sharing our information more widely across the state and working collaboratively to stop as many fraudulent students from entering the system as we can. kristen: how much ca get?

i don't know the amount of grants, usually. >> typically, a federal pell grant is about $2500 per semester. i would say most of the

disburse that in one large disbursement or we break it up over the course of the semester. the way we have put our processes in place at least in the los angeles district is we are mitigating students from actually reaching that point, where we would actually in this first -- actually disburse the funds. we are catching them before the money goes out. kristen: you do lose something on your end by having to do all this work to catch them, right? >> absolutely. as in any industry where you have money at the table, there will be fraud. and people that will try to defraud individuals from those dollars. this is something that is part of the framework that we deal with, as higher education administrators. this is something that i've dealt with in my 20 year career in higher education. kristen: what abou the real students enrolledt in your college is hoping to get some classes they need to get the degree? is there lost to them by having

these scammers out there? >> there is. one unintended consequence of us taking a look sometimes we cap students that are legitimate students in our efforts and it is a hassle for them to identify their identities with us. there are occasions in which our classes will get filled up or a seat might get taken by a fraudulent person. but our efforts now are to try to catch that before the student has too much time to take that seat before the class starts. kristen: i would like to get your thoughts on what changes you think need to happen and make this harder to accomplish. i think i am right in that community colleges here don't require social security numbers. not sure of that is related to the state not wanting to shut out on documented students. -- undocumented students. are there measures that can be taken? >> i do believe once we move into the multifactor

authentication, that it will assist. in order for somebody to obtain access to the federal financial aid, they need to have a social security number. i don't believe that is one of the issues. kristen: lastly, i wonder, what are some of the signs that might tip you off to somebody being a faker? >> those signs have changed as the fraudsters have become more sophisticated. in the past, we may see such as addresses that came from recent zillow sales. today, every time we think we figured out the pattern , fraudsters are a step ahead. we are relentless in our pursuits to keep up with them. kristen: our consumer reporter michael finney says that all the time, they are always one step ahead. i know it is a lot of work to catch them. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. kristen: we'll be right back with major summary changes coming to disneyland, including

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kristen: good news and bad news for planning a disneyland trip this summer -- some popular rides and attractions are down. the good news? california is offering a special deal for california residents, and there is a new musical for you marble fans. all the details can be found at mieyvisit.com area native who has authored a book called "disneyland secrets." gavin doyle joins us not to talk about the new developments you need to factor into your new disneyland trip. good to see you. >> great to be here. very exciting. we have any special. kristen: yes. the special. you've got a special or the summer deal that disneyland is offering to california residents? >> the summer deal. we got a 20 residents -- we california residents, getting the benefit from that. kristen: who can get it? what is the catch? tell us. >> california residents for

dates this summer, june 12 through september 28, can visit any day, any three days during that period, for a much lower prices than what would typically be a three-day ticket. also a typical three-day ticket, you are limited to a certain window from after the first use. in this case, it is open all summer. it gets you into the halloween season so you can come into multiple trips spread around those days and it is a great way to get back to the parks. kristen: oh, so not necessarily three consecutive days. it is like buying a three-putt. -- three pack. >> exactly. kristen: does it bring it down to like $83 a day only? >> you say $83 a day and in fact, in addition to that, the travel partner we mentioned before, that we keep prices, you look to save an additional $20 in certain cases when you go to mickeyvisit.com/tickets.

you can get an even lower discount on this special rate for the summer. kristen: what if you want to bring in a friend of yours who is not a california resident? >> officially, everyone has to be a california resident using the tickets. they will check your id when you are booking and come to the parks. kristen: so it truly is just for california residents. they require the id and all that. good to know. i'm hearing that three rides are closed at the same time in fantasyland. i don't go to fantasyland because you know very well which rides i like. but i know it is super popular with kids. tell us about the closures. >> these are three essential attractions closed. peter pan's flight, the wild ride, alice in wonderland. all were closed in june. the closures will be wrapped up before the end of june. it is an impact right now coming to the parks. it is the reason we cover the price the way we do.

to make sure everyone is really aware of that. but it's not a general summer impact going forward, just got to be aware of -- good to be aware of. for a first-time visitor, you may want to work it around so you are not missing these classic attractions. for right now, they are closed at the parks. kristen: that's ok. there's plenty for kids to enjoy even if it's not those three rides. toon town has been refurbished, with the mickey and minnie railroad ride. what else is going on that is exciting? >> disney 100 kicked off. the 100th anniversary of the disney company. there's any fireworks show, now i've seen it a number of times. in the world of color. of course the runaway railway. which is a great addition to disneyland here. kristen: you've got some breaking news for us. you've got previews for us on to

new things, one is a summer musical and the other is what is replacing the popular splash mountain ride that closed with so much nostalgia. tells us about the new things. >> the most nickel is a mobile themed musical around captain rogers, captain america. it is coming june 30. it is in the same place where the frozen show was previously. it's a nice addition to the parks. we are excited to see it. it's based on a song and they show that is a disney plus show. i'm excited to see it when it comes june 30. i'm sure we will come back and talk about it more than. kristen: and the splash mountain replacement? give us the scope. >> it was a great attraction but disney is bringing in an attraction based on one of the most popular characters, princess tiana. tiana's bayou adventure is a new attraction coming in 2024 and is going to be deeply rooted in the story of tiana but also the

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kristen: thank you so much for joining us today for "getting answers." we will be here every weekday at 3:00 p.m. answering questions with experts from around the bay area. "world news tonight" with david muir is next. >> david: tonight, breaking news. the new and urgent warnings across much of the u.s. tonight,

the toxic air from canada. the warnings for 115 million americans now. here in new york city, the sky turning orange. the skyline blanketed in smoke. the city