Police warn of scams targeting students

By Yang Lifei  |   2008-7-7  |     ONLINE EDITION

ALARMED by the rising number of scams targeting high school graduates and their parents, Shanghai police sounded a warning yesterday against fake admission information, the Youth Daily reported.

Police said suspects usually convinced victims that they had ``restricted or supplementary quotas'' and could help those who failed National College Entrance Examinations to be admitted to a university, the newspaper said.

Officers highlighted two cases.

A resident surnamed Wang alerted police on June 28 that he was cheated out of 90,000 yuan (US$12,857). Wang said he was introduced to a man identifying himself as Chen last year immediately after the National College Entrance Examination ended.

``My daughter failed the exams and the man promised that he could get her enrolled at a key university in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province,'' Wang told the newspaper. "He demanded 100,000 yuan to help my daughter.''

Wang treated Chen to dinner several times to express his gratitude and paid the man 90,000 yuan.

"My daughter has not been admitted yet. I think I must have been defrauded,'' Wang to told Youth Daily.

Ar similar case was reported on June 30, when a victim surnamed Zhang called a Shanghai army unit, saying an army member swindled him out of more than 50,000 yuan by lying that he could help his son get enrolled at a university.

"He claimed to be a relative of a district government official and visited our house several times to collect 55,000 yuan under the excuse to treat others to dinner and purchase gifts,'' Zhang told the newspaper. "My son took this year's National College Entrance Examination and the man disappeared before the exam resulted was announced.''
An investigation showed the suspect faked his identity and was not a member of the army, according to the report.

Police suggested exam takers and their parents learn about admission information from authorized departments or at authorized Websites.