5 COMMON SCAMS AIMED AT INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

1. 5 COMMON SCAMS AIMED AT INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
Overseas education comes with all sorts of challenges and inconvenience. In such
times, it is imperative that a student is aware of loopholes and traps one may fall
into owing to misguided advice, poor planning, and unethical practices in
overseas education industry. The present article will try to raise concerns and
measures to safeguard against the 5 most common scams in this area
Immigration Scam
This surely is one of the most dangerous and one of the easiest to trap someone
into. Let us suppose you receive a call from someone talking in a highly
sophisticated manner with the finest use of English language, telling you that your
visa is due to be terminated. What will you do? Chances are you will get panicky.
This is where they detect that you are a good catch for them. They will counsel
you saying that with some payment your visa processing could be sorted out.
They will provide you with a link that will sound very much like a diplomat or
embassy office and you may not doubt their sinister motives. You will
haphazardly make a payment; after all, it’s about your visa approval. Please be
warned of URLs and websites those can, in fact, copy your transaction details on
the net and may use your accounts to your serious disadvantage. Cybercrimes
happen in all variants and our advice is to just check with the consulate directly.

2. Action Step: Take the call, strike a lengthy conversation (get their names,
numbers, and email) and tell them that you will get back to them after
confirmation from the embassy. Please do report the matter to the consulate and
register a complaint. Under no circumstance, should you share your bank details,
OTP, and card numbers on phone, even if the caller says that they want to confirm
your details. Make sure that you keep multiple copies of your passport and visa
for safety purposes and do maintain records of addresses and phone numbers of
your embassy for any emergency.
Scholarships Scam
There are numerous sites offering scholarships for a plethora of courses across
universities. How to know whether they are genuine? If the caller or mail asks for
an upfront payment to be made in form of processing charges, you can be sure
it’s a trap. Universities simply waive off part of the course fee, they never ask for
your bank account to make you a payment. Don’t treat it as a Paytm cash back
offer. If you try to act smart by saying that you’ll make the payment once you
have the confirmation of scholarship, they will also be able to send you a
scholarship mail to that effect. The email won’t be genuine either. I will go even
further suggesting that tracking the caller number also won’t be of much help as
tricksters are smart enough to get similar university number and route them
through internet channels. One of the best ways to safeguard you and avail of
scholarship facility if at all is to visit university fairs. In university fairs, you get
to interact with actual university representatives, reach them, ask directly from
them of any facilities, and get details on it. Global Opportunities has made it sure
that its students get to have such interaction throughout the years. We invite
universities both during the fairs and also at our company premises.
Action Step: Participate in university fairs and seek information from the
representatives.
Study Loan Scams
Along similar lines to scholarships scams, study loan scams are also a current
reality. Agents call in the prospects and load them up with assurances of study
loans for universities programs. Such individuals sell you on low rates of interest
and extended loan-repayment tenures for a significant fee to be paid up front for
processing your application for admission. Moreover, just in case you receive an
email, make sure it is not addressed as Dear Student; after all if someone really
wants an upfront payment for processing application, won’t they have your name

3. in advance. In fact, only scammers ask for sensitive information sharing on call
or email.
Accommodation Scams
Students opting for non-campus accommodation options should be very careful
and only opt for certified and authorised accommodation options or home-stay
options that are certified by the University. Just in case you are running short of
funds, the best way to arrange accommodation is to seek assistance from
university alumni and that too can be arranged after meeting the initial
requirements have been met. Moreover, it is also advisable that you carry on your
own research and visit places and negotiate deals once you are in the host country.
Some things just should not be left at the helms of the internet. Take
encouragement from the fact that, quite often student accommodations are
available nearby university hubs and colleges. Once you reach the destination,
you will be intelligent enough to search and find on your own.
Money Laundering
Don’t give in to request from any friend or seniors asking for your bank details
to transact or transfer some amount. You may be sold to offers such as every
transaction will allow you to earn few bucks every day or every week. Who
knows, possibly you are being tricked by some militant organization or money
laundering agents who work for big houses and engage in unlawful or unethical
business practices. No matter what, never share in your bank details under any
situation. There are sites having lottery competitions or poker games that first
allow you to win initially and deposit money in your account. You may be fooled
a big way, soon all the balances may be syphoned out to your dismay.
Source:- http://www.article.org.in/article.php?id=86372