Students awarded scholarships to study abroad were tricked out of 200 million VND.
The Da Nang City Police Department has recently sent a document to universities and colleges in the area, warning about the situation where some individuals are impersonating universities to scam students and parents through overseas scholarship programs.
Accordingly, from the end of 2024 to the present, the situation of impersonating universities to commit fraud in overseas student recruitment has become increasingly complex in many localities, including Da Nang.
The main tactics include forging announcements and invitations to scholarship programs, bearing logos, seals, and signatures impersonating university rectors and officials from the Ministry of Education and Training; using social media or fake emails (impersonating the International Cooperation Department of universities) to disseminate advertisements and invite students to participate in student exchange programs and short-term study abroad programs.
Furthermore, impersonating officials from the International Cooperation Department, these individuals call students interested in scholarship programs. Exploiting their desire to study abroad, they pressure students or parents to transfer money immediately because "there's a waiting list, otherwise you'll lose your spot."
According to the police, the consequences are that many students and parents in urban and rural areas, especially those lacking information about legitimate study abroad programs, have been scammed out of large sums of money; affecting the reputation of many schools...
Typically, at the University of Technology and Education (Da Nang University), students received fraudulent notifications impersonating the university regarding their "acceptance" to an exchange program with Hosei University (Japan). The notification stated that students would be exempt from tuition and housing costs, but had to provide proof of financial resources through a bank account with a balance of 200 million VND. Families transferred money to the requested account to demonstrate financial capability. However, suspecting irregularities, the students reported the matter to the Student Affairs Office, which confirmed that the notification was fake.
A similar situation occurred at the University of Economics and the University of Technology (Da Nang University), where some students received acceptance letters for full scholarships from programs of unknown origin.
The Da Nang City Police Department has requested that higher education institutions in the area strengthen their efforts to disseminate warnings to students and parents.
