Six things to check before you pay
Most money lost in Indian admissions is not lost to sophisticated fraud. It is lost to these six things, every time. None of them takes more than a phone call.
1. Never pay an individual
Fees go to the institution’s own bank account, against a receipt in the institution’s name. Cash handed to a person — an agent, a “counsellor”, a middleman — is money you cannot trace and cannot recover.
2. Ask who awards the qualification
A university awards a degree. An autonomous institute awards its own diploma. Both can be perfectly legitimate, but they are different things and they satisfy different rules. Ask which one you are buying.
3. Get the total fee in writing
Not the per-semester figure. Ask what examination fees, re-registration, certificate and convocation charges add across the whole programme. The advertised number is rarely the final number.
4. Never share an OTP
No genuine admission, scholarship or verification process requires your one-time password. A request for an OTP ends the conversation.
5. Match the institution’s name exactly
Look-alike names are the oldest trick in Indian admissions. One word different is a different institution with a different standing. Check the spelling against the official website.
6. For distance or online degrees, ask for the entitlement letter
A university may offer a degree in distance or online mode only where it has been entitled to do so, for that programme and that session. Ask to see the letter covering your intake year. A refusal is itself an answer.
If something has already gone wrong
Stop paying immediately. Collect every receipt, message and advertisement you have. Raise it in writing with the institution first — a written complaint on file is worth more than a dozen phone calls — and keep a copy of everything you send.