The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) has been made aware of the fraudulent websites that are currently targeting students and attempting to extract sensitive information from them such as login details.
Nsfas-funded students are being promised to receive assistance to withdraw their allowances from different payment partners.
In a statement, the government bursary scheme said:
Please be aware of fraudulent websites and social media links that request your personal details to withdraw your allowances.
The Scheme has also mentioned that itself and its payment partners will never request a student to share their login details, including the password, or transfer money on their behalf.
Once a student is being requested to share their personal details, this will then be an indication of a potential impersonation fraud.
According to the Southern African Prevention Service, fraud impersonation increased by 337% in 2021. This is mainly scammers pretending to be authorities such as the police, government, etc with the aim of soliciting money from individuals that they reach on various forms of communication.
It is for this reason that NSFAS has advised its students to treat such incidents with extreme caution and immediately report them to the appropriate authorities.
NSFAS-funded students have been made aware of the following fraudulent websites and social media links that have been identified:
- https://tawk.to/Bhatala.com
- https://tawk.to/CoinvestAfrica.com
- https://tawk.to/Norraco.com
- https://chat/63465b1f4f06e12d899b51a/1gf5d7riq?fbclid=lwAR3SjHG5WYW-kucTbyjMaVmEvvMW5hkHwOk-RjXloWZ76knRwgZTBrBHvM8
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/29811132121899934
NSFAS has a new direct payment solution for student allowances, through the NSFAS Mastercard. One of the benefits of the Mastercard includes that students will receive an SMS each time a transaction is carried out via their account and the card is pin enabled, which will make it difficult for non-owners to use it fraudulently.
