Frequently South African businesses and institutions need to issue warnings to their stakeholders to be wary of imposters trying to make money, and today the Unisa University of South Africa (Unisa) has had to issue another one of these warnings.
“It has come to our attention that some companies and social media pages have been falsely advertising Unisa online information and various services to assist Unisa students. In the process, companies either solicit money fraudulently from students or make money through online advertising with no benefit to students. These companies are in no way associated or related to Unisa,” the warning reads.
“We request that students only use official Unisa sites and platforms as any other platforms will provide you with incorrect information and/or act illegally which will be harmful to your studies. Unisa will always use official communication channels (eg Unisa website, myUnisa, Unisa social media platforms , myLife e-mail) to communicate with students.”
This is far from the first time that Unisa has had to issue a statement like this. The school had to issue another such warning as recently as last month when a fake message was being passed around promising students admission.
It’s not just Unisa either with other bodies in the tertiary education sphere also experiencing similar problems with bad actors and criminals trying to extra money from students. In October 2021 the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) reported fake websites and misinformation being spread using the NSFAS name.
Many of these schemes involve extracting money from students in exchange for services such as guaranteed registration, tuition money, exam / assignment answers and more. There is also a grey area to this where individuals and companies offer tutoring. While this is less nefarious it can be difficult to tell a legitimate tutor from a scammer until money is paid over.
Returning to Unisa and the university recommends that students exclusively stick to the following official channels of communication:
