Tuition Fee Fraud
There are scams that target international students paying tuition fees. There are steps you can take to protect yourself against fraudulent tuition fee schemes.
What is happening?
- Fraudsters are offering significantly discounted rates to pay tuition fees on your behalf to the University. They may show you evidence they have paid your tuition fees to the University before they ask you to pay them. To pay your fees they use stolen credit card details or deposit cash made from illegal activity into the University’s bank account. These funds may be taken from the University when the illegal activity is later identified; leaving a tuition fee balance you are liable to pay.
- Fraudsters are sending messages pretending to be Newcastle University. They state you must pay future year tuition fees or an additional deposit to guarantee your course place. They will ask you to transfer money to their bank account.
- Fraudsters are posing as Police claiming there are visa related or similar issues and advising that money needs to be transferred to the Police in a number of days.
Fraudsters may use information you have posted online to contact you or to trick you into thinking their correspondence is from Newcastle University (e.g. your mobile number, email address, what course you are studying).
What to look out for
Be vigilant of the following behaviours that fraudsters often use:
- Put excessive pressure on you to agree to their payment proposal, for example sending you lots of messages or saying the discount is only available for a limited amount of time.
- Offer discounted rates for using their services that seem too good to be true
- Ask you or a family member to meet them in person to pay large sums of cash for their services
- Recruit a student to advertise their services to you
- Contact you on social media platforms or messaging apps (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, WhatsApp)
How to prevent fraud
There are some easy steps to follow to stay safe from tuition fee fraud:
- Your tuition fees should always be paid directly to the University by yourself or a family member, using a University-approved payment method.
- Be vigilant of adverts and messages on social media and messaging platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, WeChat). We will never contact you via these platforms to ask you to pay your tuition fees.
- Remember if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- Be aware of University procedure: We will only ask you to pay tuition fees for the current academic year you are registered in. You will never be asked to pay an additional deposit to secure a place on a course you are already registered on.
If you are unsure if a request to pay tuition fees is legitimate then do not respond to the message and contact the tuition fees team to check. Do not use any contact details or links on the suspicious message.