Organised Crime Groups use students to open bank accounts for money laundering purposes. These scams are often in the guise of a ‘betting syndicate’. You are offered a fee to carry out an activity on the criminals’ behalf and become a money mule.

Although victims may be unwittingly committing crime, there are consequences:

• your bank account will be closed
• you’ll find it hard to access further student loans
• it’ll be difficult to get a phone contract
• you’ll have problems applying for credit
• you could go to prison for up to 14 years

For more information about money mules, please read about the Don’t Be Fooled campaign. If you think you are being targeted, please contact Action Fraud.

Phishing emails are scam emails pretending to be from a legitimate organisation. They try to access your usernames and passwords, bank account or credit card details, answers to your security questions, or other important identity details such as your national insurance number.

Some common phishing emails pretend to be from Student Finance England, HMRC and Apple. The University's IT Service and the government provide advice about phishing emails.

To make sure you’re not a victim of such emails, you should:

• work out whether the sender’s email address seems genuine
• check for spelling or grammar mistakes
• check how they’ve addressed you – a genuine email wouldn’t use your email username in a greeting
• decide whether the message is too good to be true – if you haven’t applied for a grant, would you automatically receive one?

If you’ve received such an email, please delete it and don’t click any links.

The below organisations have more information:

• Get Safe Online
• Action Fraud
• British Banker's Association - Information Leaflet (PDF: 279KB)

Updated November 2021.

Scammers impersonating officials 

South Yorkshire Police's fraud co-ordination team has issued a warning about an emerging scam which has seen international students being targeted by fraudsters.

In the scam, which has targeted mainly Chinese students studying at universities and colleges across the UK, the victim receives a call from the fraudster who claims to be from one of a number of official sounding organisations, such as the Chinese Embassy, Immigration or Customs Services, the Chinese Police, or Royal Mail. They claim that they are investigating international crimes and require the victim to transfer large sums of money to an account in China to be checked.

In some cases, the criminals will use threats to encourage the victim to co-operate, and state that the victim must not tell anyone about the incident.

If you have been a victim of this scam, you should report it to Action Fraud, the UK's national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, by calling 0300 123 2040.

Scammers offering a 'discount' on tuition fees

Newcastle University is aware of fraudulent activity affecting international students across the country, where a third party offers to pay a student’s fees on their behalf at a heavily discounted rate.

The third party is a fraudster who uses stolen credit cards to make payments to the University, and then asks for payment from the student. When the fraudulent payments are identified, the funds are taken from the University. This leaves the student’s fees unpaid and their money in the hands of the fraudster.

The fraudsters use the following methods to convince students to use their service:

• Use messaging apps (e.g. WeChat, WhatsApp) and recruit other students to promote their services
• Offer heavily discounted rates if you use their service to pay your student fees
• Claim the offer will expire soon, so you feel pressurised to make a quick decision
• Making payment to the University before you have paid them to prove they are legitimate. These payments are made using stolen payment cards.

For further information view these leaflets produced by the police in both Scams (English)(PDF: 2197KB) and Scams (Mandarin)(PDF: 2484KB).

Students should pay their tuition fees directly through University approved payment methods. Remember, If a deal looks too good to be true then it likely is.

Chinese mobile SIM card scam

We have heard from another university about a scam related to Chinese mobile SIM cards. We are not aware of any Newcastle University students becoming a victim of this scheme but it is important to know the details in case fraudsters target Newcastle students. The details of the scam are:

Student purchased a UK sim card from ChinaTelecom in China before travelling to the UK. This is a common connection to most students who have fallen foul of these types of scams.

Student received a phone call from someone claiming to be Royal Mail staff. The caller claimed there was a parcel under the student’s name containing some illegal medical kit and a bank card with the student's name on. 

The caller accused the student of committing money laundering and transferred the student to a ‘police officer’. He showed his police work ID card and an arrest warrant with the student’s name on. He told the student not to tell anyone about this as 'it is a top-secret case'. He asked the student to download Telegram and record themselves confirming their ID (passport and Chinese ID card) and giving their ‘plea’. He demanded 600,000 Yuan for ‘bail’ and threatened that the student could be arrested and sent back to China if the student didn’t pay. The student transferred the money to several different accounts.   

After the transactions were made successfully, they demanded the student reset their mobile phone settings, which was when the student finally realised it was a scam and informed their parents.