Beware of Fraud Study Abroad Counselling Agents

Studying abroad opens doors to exciting global opportunities, but unfortunately, it's also a space where fake study abroad agents and education scams are on the rise. In this article, you’ll learn how to identify these fraudulent agents, understand the common tricks they use, and, most importantly, how Shiksha’s trusted counselling services help safeguard your future.

Many students dream of studying abroad. It's a great way to learn about different cultures, gain new ideas, and improve job opportunities. However, there are fraud risks involved. Some study abroad agents are not honest and cheat students. They promise easy admissions abroad, visas, or jobs in exchange for a lot of money. These scams can cause financial loss, delay your education, and even lead to legal problems.

Fake agents often promise admission to universities that are not recognized or submit false documents. This can lead to visa rejection and harm your future academic and professional reputation. Students and their families need to be aware of these scams. This article will help you understand how to spot and avoid fake study abroad agents, ensuring a safe and successful journey to achieving your international education goals.

With more and more Indian students opting to study abroad for higher education, every day the number of scams related to it is also coming forward. As the students are not aware of the complex process of studying abroad, they are easily targeted by fraud agents. Not only people living in smaller towns but even young people living in metro cities are a vulnerable target of these agents. In order to avoid this kind of situation, in this article, we will inform you about how fraud agents and scamsters can cheat you and how you can stay alert and not get trapped in their dishonest schemes.

Common Study Abroad Scams Indian Students Must Avoid

• Agents send students to non-recognized universities. Make sure to check that the university/college you are applying to is a recognized institution by the concerned authority of that country.
• Many times the agents submit fake academic or bank documents to the embassy/college leading to the blacklisting of that candidate later on.
• Always check the validity or accreditation of the course you are applying to. Check whether you will be getting a valid degree and whether you will be able to get a permanent job after completing your studies or not.
• Guaranteed Visa: Never fall prey to fraud agents by giving them money in exchange for guaranteed admission or visa. Agents make false claims to students that they can assure visas to them with their links in the embassy. Here, aspirants should know that the Embassy of the concerned country is the only authority that can issue a visa (Student Visa) to students and no agent can do that.
• Always check all necessary details related to fees, accommodation, on-campus work and other facilities on the official website of the college/university and don’t go simply by what the agents are claiming. Agents can misguide students about all these details.
• Beware of agents who promise guaranteed admission as officially they are not authorised to provide admissions to students. It is always the admissions committee that is selected by the college/university that has the authority to give admission or reject the application. Also, note that universities always inform the students about the status of their application whether accepted or rejected.

How to Identify a Fake Study Abroad Agent

Whenever you receive a call from a study abroad counsellor, ask for the following:

• Generally, smaller or fake study abroad consultants/agents mislead students by claiming to be a representative of an established study abroad consultant/ agent. Beware of such fraud agents and remember to check their credentials before enrolling for their services.
• Before enrolling for the counselling services, check the reviews, testimonials, and ratings of the agency you will be applying through. Many students feel stuck after paying upfront money to their agents and are not satisfied with their agents’ services. Study abroad counselling and editing services by Shiksha are free for all. We never ask for money from students/aspirants at any stage of their application process.
• What is the name of their parent company? How long have they been in this business? How many successful cases have they processed? You can check the reviews and ratings of students here who have taken the Shiksha Counselling Service.
• We do not have any walk-in offices anywhere, Shiksha counsellors communicate with students through their official email IDs having email address as ‘xyz@shiksha.com’ or registered phone numbers and never use their personal IDs (E.g. Gmail or Yahoo IDs)

• Shiksha counsellors always advise students to deposit the ‘Application Fee’ themselves and guide them in the process of making payments directly to the university.

• In the above-mentioned case, sometimes the counsellors offer to deposit the ‘Application fee’ to 5 universities, however, they deposit the money only in 2 or 3 universities. As students are not aware of the application process, they do not come to know about this and lose their hard-earned money.
• Generally speaking, paying money to agents for ancillary services is not a good idea e.g. some agents charge students for sending transcripts at a cheaper rate. However, they charge more than their cost and pocket the difference as their profit.
  • Shiksha counsellors never ask you to pay money to them ever for any service.

Why Choose Shiksha for Study Abroad Counselling  

Shiksha offers free counselling, editing, and application services to all students. We never ask for money at any stage of the process. Our counsellors only use official email IDs like @shiksha.com or registered phone numbers. We never contact students through personal email accounts. Unlike many paid consultants, Shiksha’s editing and application support is 100% free. Students also get direct support in shortlisting universities, reviewing documents, and preparing for exams.

Shiksha vs Other Study Abroad Agents

Even if you are not taking Shiksha Counselling Services, then also you should keep in mind the above-mentioned points while taking services from any study abroad consultant/agent. As genuine study abroad consultants, we Shiksha Counsellors want to serve ambitious students who are looking for a better future and better opportunities.

Students always get an acknowledgement whenever they make payments to any university. If in any case, they are not receiving the acknowledgement, then they should be alert about it and raise the alarm.

What to Do If You’ve Been Approached by a Fake Consultant

If someone claims to represent Shiksha but uses a personal email ID or behaves suspiciously, please write to us at feedback@shiksha.com.We do not have walk-in offices anywhere. All our communication happens through official channels. Always confirm you are speaking to an official Shiksha counsellor.

A special note from Shiksha

We are flattered that there are many agents and organisations that want to be like us, or better still, be us. We also noticed that such agents and organisations have probably become rather efficient at telling their customers that they are not “very different” since the range of services they offer might also be similar to ours.

How do we know this? Of late, we have received complaints from students that they are not getting any calls from our counsellors. On deep diving, we found out that these students were not even registered with us. Some agents were misusing our brand name and advertising on Twitter and other mediums and getting students to enrol with them thinking that they were doing so with Shiksha.

The truth is, while we do not let all these copycat services in the market perturb us, what does perturb us is something else. It is a fact that there are some genuine students and customers who are misled into believing that they are dealing with Shiksha, whereas, actually they are not.

So we thought it our duty to reach out to such people, to let them know, that they should look out for the official branding before they actually believe it to be Shiksha which includes both sender email IDs as well as our logos.

Shiksha.com is the education vertical of Info Edge (India) Limited which is a public limited company listed on the National Stock Exchange. Naukri.com, 99acres.com, Jeevansathi.com, Zomato, and Policy Bazaar are some of its leading brands. Our official company website is http://www.infoedge.in.

Shiksha’s domestic services operate under the brand name, shiksha.com and its study abroad services are exclusively offered under the brand name: studyabroad.shiksha.com.

Watch out for the following logos in any and every communication that you receive from us:

If you have been approached by anyone masquerading as Shiksha or by anyone who you feel might not be the real Shiksha, do us a favour and drop us a line at feedback@shiksha.com.

We always communicate with all our stakeholders using our official Shiksha email id:

@shiksha.com

feedback@shiksha.com

….shiksha.infoedge.com

You can connect with us through our official Facebook page here

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