How to spot a study-abroad scam

Most people you meet while applying to study abroad are genuine, but scammers target international students because you are sending money and documents across borders, often under time pressure. This guide shows you the warning signs and, more usefully, the free official tools you can use to check a school, an adviser, a letter or a landlord yourself before you pay anything.

The red flags

• Someone guarantees you a visa. No agent can guarantee the outcome of a student visa application.
• You are asked for a large upfront payment to "fast-track" your application (Australian Embassy, China).
• You are told to pay into a personal bank account or through a private money transfer service (IRCC).
• You are asked to pay with gift cards, prepaid cards, cryptocurrency, a courier or a wire transfer (FBI IC3).
• A scholarship charges a fee, or asks for your card details "to hold" it (US Federal Trade Commission).
• An "immigration officer" writes from a free email address such as Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo (IRCC).
• A caller threatens arrest or deportation unless you pay (IRCC).
• Someone asks for a two-factor login code (FBI IC3).
• An agent sells a "complete package" of admission, visa, housing and a job. Germany's ambassador to India has warned students to avoid these.
• An adviser claims to be registered but cannot give you a registration number that appears on the official register (Australian Embassy, China).
• You are encouraged to give false information or documents with your application (Immigration New Zealand, Home Affairs).
• A landlord is "abroad", the rent is suspiciously low, the bank account is in another country or you are pressed to pay now (DAAD).
• A room is advertised only on social media and the "landlord" talks only through WhatsApp or Messenger (An Garda Síochána, reported by RTÉ).

Check the school is real and licensed

Before you pay a deposit, look the school up yourself on the official list for your destination. Do not rely on a link someone sends you: type the address or search for the official site.

• UK: the Home Office Register of licensed sponsors: students lists institutions that can sponsor a Student visa. To check a university can award degrees, use GOV.UK's Check if your university or college can award a degree or HEDD, which also tracks bogus institutions.
• US: use the Study in the States School Search to find SEVP-certified schools. You must apply to an SEVP-certified school to study on an F or M visa.
• Canada: check the Designated learning institutions list. You need a letter of acceptance from a DLI to apply for a study permit.
• Australia: search institutions and courses on CRICOS.
• Germany: check the institution's status in anabin. Germany's recognition portal explains that a university should be rated H+ (or H+/-) in anabin.
• Ireland: non-EEA students can only be recruited to programmes on the Interim List of Eligible Programmes (ILEP).
• New Zealand: use NZQA's Find Education Organisations search.
• Anywhere else: start with the ENIC-NARIC country pages. ENIC-NARIC defines diploma mills as bodies that falsely claim recognition, award qualifications without real assessment and charge considerable sums.

Check an agent or adviser

An education agent recruits students for schools. An immigration adviser gives visa advice. They are not the same thing, and in several countries only a licensed person may give paid immigration advice.

• Canada: it is an offence to give Canadian immigration advice for a fee without a licence from the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants, a Canadian law society or the Chambre des notaires du Québec. On the CICC Public Register, check the status is "Active" and "Entitled to Practise" says "Yes".
• UK: the OISC is now the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA). Advisers must be registered with the IAA or belong to an approved professional body, such as a solicitors' regulator. Search the IAA Adviser Finder. GOV.UK warns you cannot recover fees paid to an unregistered adviser.
• Australia: only registered migration agents or Australian legal practitioners can give visa help. Search the OMARA register. Universities also publish lists of the education agents they work with (Study Australia).
• New Zealand: an education agent outside New Zealand may advise on student visas only; anyone in New Zealand, or advising on other visas, needs a licence.

What a licensed adviser should give you: their registration number so you can look it up (Australian agents each have a unique MARN; UK advisers must display their IAA number where appropriate), and a written statement of services and fees before work starts (OMARA; in the UK, a client care letter and invoice).

Check an offer or acceptance letter

The safest check is always the same: find the admissions or international office contact on the institution's own website and ask them to confirm your offer. Do not use the phone number or email printed on the letter you are checking.

• Canada: post-secondary DLIs must verify letters of acceptance with IRCC. In 2025 IRCC checked over 368,000 letters and flagged about 4,900 as "no-match", so a fake letter is likely to be caught and your application put at risk.
• UK: your licensed sponsor gives you a CAS reference number for your visa application. Check the sponsor is on the register above and confirm the CAS with them directly.
• Australia: a Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE) is issued by the education provider, so confirm it with the provider.
• US: your Form I-20 is a paper record of your information in SEVIS, issued by the school. Keep your designated school official's contact details and pay the SEVIS I-901 fee only at FMJfee.com.

Money: blocked accounts, deposits and rent

• German blocked accounts: the Federal Foreign Office deleted its list of providers in 2022, says any earlier listing was not a recommendation, and advises you to choose a provider carefully after detailed research. Check with your German mission which forms of proof it accepts before you pay.
• Deposits to schools: pay only through the payment route on the institution's official website, never to an agent's or individual's personal account (IRCC).
• Visa fees: in the UK you will never be asked to pay for a visa in cash or by money transfer. Immigration New Zealand never asks for visa fees by bank deposit.
• Rent: never send a deposit for a room you have not verified. The DAAD says the deposit is due only after the tenancy agreement is signed, and reservation or viewing fees are not common. Arrange a viewing or video tour first. Irish police advise using recognised letting agencies or your college accommodation portal, and paying in a traceable, refundable way, not cash.

Impersonation calls and messages

A common scam is a call, text or email from someone claiming to be police, immigration or your embassy, saying there is a problem with your visa and demanding payment.

• The FBI says law enforcement and government will never phone or text you to demand any form of payment, and never ask for prepaid cards, cryptocurrency or couriers. It has warned of criminals posing as immigration officials to target students.
• US DHS will never ask you to transfer money to an individual or pay fees by phone or email (republished from Study in the States).
• IRCC will never contact you to collect fees or fines to avoid deportation, and will not threaten you or contact you by social media direct message.

What to do: hang up and contact the office yourself using a number you found independently. Tell your university's international office; they deal with these scams every year.

If it has happened to you

Act quickly: contact your bank, keep every message and receipt, and report it.

• UK: Report Fraud, which replaced Action Fraud in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (0300 123 2040). In Scotland, call Police Scotland on 101.
• US: the FBI's IC3. For DHS imposters, also tell your DSO and the ICE Tip Line.
• Canada: your local police first, then the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (1-888-495-8501).
• Australia: Scamwatch, and Border Watch for visa fraud or unregistered agents.
• New Zealand: Immigration New Zealand points you to Own Your Online, and to Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111 for immigration fraud.
• Anywhere: report to the police in the country where you are, and tell your university. If an adviser was involved, report them to the regulator above.

Where these facts come from