Thousands of students come to the UK every year to study, as per HESA (Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2020-21), there were 605,130 international students studying at UK higher education institutions. 152,905 of these students were from the EU and 452,225 were non-EU students. There is a tremendous amount of paperwork in between, passing on data, visa applications and a deep risk of information leak. Scammers target international students moving to a new country who have very limited knowledge of the new rules and regulations of the country. The scammers try and take advantage of the situation by telephoning them and pretending to be from a legitimate organisation (such as the UK Home Office, an education agent or even UKCISA). They demand money (calling it a “fine” for a non-existent immigration problem) and claim that if you do not pay them quickly, there will be damaging consequences (for example, deportation or cancelling your visa).
It happened to me twice, the first time I received a call where the lady pretended to be calling from the UK Home Office and told me that I have mentioned the wrong details in my form, she had my personal details, I honestly got scared and believed her for a while, then she demanded 650 pounds as a penalty for correcting my details or I will be deported back to my country. She was not letting me hang my phone and I could sense something is off and just disconnected, but she kept calling the whole day. I was her potential trap. I informed the university and all my friends and came to know that this has happened to many and some of them have ended up paying money out of fear.
This short post is not to scare you but to aware you and give you the right information. If you receive such a call, where the caller may appear to be genuine and convincing, and might have some information about you, like your passport number, and other personal details. You might panic for a while when they say that there is a serious problem with your immigration status and that you need to pay a fine or send an immediate payment.
1.) Ask them to talk to the University, who is your sponsor right now and if you had any such issue the University must have told you.
2.) Do not share any other personal details asked.
3.) The Home Office will not call and ask for pay penalties.
4.) Be assertive and tell the caller/sender that you know about the fraudulent contact they are making and that you will be reporting it to the police and the Home Office.
5.) If you could sense it’s a scam call, you may simply hang up. I did the same when it happened a second time to me.
6.) Report the incident to your international student adviser, who can report the fraud to the police and to the Home Office if you wish.
7.) Inform your friends about it and spread awareness.
8.) If you wish, you can report the matter online to Action Fraud.
9.) You can also help other potential victims of this fraud by adding details of your experience to a discussion about this specific fraud on the Who Calls Me website.
Make sure you report any such suspicious incidents to the university (contactus@dundee.ac.uk) or the DUSA advice and support team (advice@dusa.co.uk), no matter how genuine or convincing they sound.
Fact source:
1.) HESA
2.) UKCISA
3.) HMRC Gov.UK
Priyanka is a passionate blogger studying MSc in Digital Marketing and Social Media Management at the University of Dundee.
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