Fraudulent payment

We are aware that some International students have been targeted by fraudsters offering to pay tuition fees on your behalf and sometimes at a reduced rate. 

These fraudsters are using stolen or cloned credit card information to pay Universities, and this money can be claimed back by the genuine cardholder once they become aware of the crime.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR

Fraudsters often use online or WeChat groups to contact applicants and students, sometimes posing as students themselves, offering to pay fees directly to a University on your behalf and often with the incentive of a reduced fee.  They don’t ask for any money up front, instead they make a payment on your behalf and provide a receipt or proof of the payment being successful, before asking you to transfer money to them directly.

Although the payment(s) they make to the University can at first seem genuine, the fraudsters are using stolen or cloned credit card information and once the genuine cardholder realises their card has been used without their permission, the money can be claimed back (usually between 2 and 12 weeks later). 

When a payment is confirmed as being fraudulent and claimed back from the University we will ask you to make a further payment to cover this, so in effect you may have to pay twice (once to the fraudster and once to the University).

WHAT TO REMEMBER