Hyderabad (Telangana): Online fraudsters are duping gullible youth of lakhs of rupees luring them with admissions in professional courses. Hundreds of such cases are reported every year in the three commissionerates of Hyderabad city, an official said. The fraudsters have adopted a new tactic wherein they target such youth who fail to qualify the competitive examinations for professional programmes.
It is learnt that the fraudsters put advertisements on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram promising admissions at the college of choice. Many medical aspirants dreaming of studying in foreign universities and who fail to qualify the NEET exam are becoming soft targets of such fraudsters. Besides the medical aspirants and those writing Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) seeking admission in foreign universities also become vulnerable to such online frauds.
It is said that such fraudsters have even set up corporate offices in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi to project themselves as genuine consultancies and later dupe the aspirants. Police said that the father of a student who had recently seen an online advertisement for MBBS admission and called the purported “consultancy” and he was made to travel to Kolkata and pay fee in lakhs. However, it was later found the medical college where his ward was promised the seat did not exist.