ONLINE EDUCATIONAL FRAUDS:
With the arrival of covid-19, the schools across the globe have shut and have shifted to online education. There has been a distinctive rise in e-learning platforms globally, where teaching was given the main preference.
There have been studies that have stated that online learning has made an enormous impact over the apprehension of information. This has been a great introduction towards the educational technology.
Due to the increase in demand of online portals for education, google meet and zoom meetings became a go to solution, where large number of people can get connected through a single video call and professional meetings, teaching sessions, etc. could be taken.
IMPACT OVER THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
Such significant demands have resulted in the growth of e-learning platforms. BYJU’S, EDUMANTRA, MERITNATION, MYCBSE GUIDE, etc. has increased their services, they started offering free access to their services, providing free live classes, providing board materials and schedules along with curriculums.
Going over the internet for education; it has been an advantage as well. Students are able to take classes from anywhere they want, students are able to adapt more due to the visuals, college students are able to have distant learning i.e., they are able to have access to more courses from all over the world, getting skilled as a professional has become too easy.
There have been a few demerits as well; zero focus, fraudulent online courses, lack of training, network issues, less time to get ready, availability of electricity, less attention of students and so on.
E-LEARNING FRAUDS
E-learning has opened new approaches for the fraudsters. Going ahead with online classes, most of the students are using computers, mobile phones and tablets. People are advised to ignore unnecessary links mentioned on social media platforms. There are chances of misusing these gadgets and parents are directed to use parental controls.
The Union Education ministry has advised people consider it be parents, students, stakeholders and others to keep an eye open while opting for online contents and coaching offered online. They stated that these online portals were offering free services and are getting electronic fund transfer mandating the auto-debit option, in other words we can say that the future payments would be auto debited without having permissions.
THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION HAS ADVISED THE FOLLOWING THINGS TO DO:
- People should avoid using this automatic debit option for payment.
- Digital payments are required to be cross checked with such online educational portals.
- They need to go thoroughly the terms and conditions before the acceptance of software/device because through their IP address their personal data could be accessed.
- Avoid giving access to tax invoice statement while purchasing educational devices loaded with their content/app purchases/pen drives etc.
- Detailed background study of the educational institution must be so that people are assured.
- Verification of the content is must be; keeping the pace with the syllabus and their content.
- Ensure that the study material is comprehensive enough for the child and others.
- Activating parental control and safety features over the device is a must.
- Avoid debit/credit card registrations on apps for subscriptions.
- Adding personal data like email and their passwords, contact numbers, addresses, etc., it can be used for later scams.
- Avoid blindly following the success stories of such educational platforms, it can be falsely stated.
- Without having a proper surety people should avoid sharing bank account details and OTP numbers with any their marketing personnel.
- Rather than opting private platforms people are advised to look after the free government initiatives made for the same. There are many free e-learning contents/textbooks/digital labs that are offered online with good quality by the Ministry of Education and various other organizations.
- Parents are advised to keep a regular check upon their mode of subscription on these paid services, because sometimes the child gets access to the paid features without even realizing.
It is very important for people to be beware of such fraudulent educational websites/portals; Law Answer online brings you the online frauds where people are expected to be cautious about while taking online classes:
CASE 1: FAKE COLLEGE
The term college is too easy to use for misleading students, anyone can aspire to offer educational services but in later they don’t even exist. They can offer you educational services conditional to digital payments to be made. These frauds can have fancy names and fake certificates as well.
CASE 2: FAKE QUALIFICATION
It is too easy to offer courses that have general acceptance worldwide. Scammers can easily offer professional courses but then fail to give the material or professional certificate for the same.
CASE 3: COMPULSION SALES
Some websites would try to bait upon products offered by other websites to continue with their professional courses and would assure you with learning outcomes. For example, they could ask you to get that particular subscription or products like books or material that won’t accept any COD for the orders.
CASE 4: FAKE PROMISES
Websites offering professional courses would also offer top-notch employment options so that the consumers get highly interested in their services. They materialize the employment choices that could be offered causing more people looking forward to it.
CASE 5: HIGH-PRICED COURSES
These fraudulent people often provide a short overview of the course and in order to have access to full material people are asked to pay more and they also insist them to make payments in bulk. They would call and mail vigorously in order to gain you acceptance for their course.
CASE 6: ACCREDITATION
One can easily find out if the source of information is reliable or not by ensuring that the material provided is fully accredited by professionals. If it is accredited then a reference link would be definitely mentioned on their website.
CASE 7: PHISHING
It is the most common method of cyber-crime. Receiving unwanted, inappropriate emails are often methods of toggling. Emails sent by such websites are professional and efficient. If the mail ID ends with “@gmail.com” it can be a wrong or a fake address.
CASE 8: HIGH TUITION FEES
If the institution requires a lot of deposition of money even before confirming you admission then there are possible chances that it is a scam. Universities never ask to make payment of the entire tuition fee; they are usually paid in installments.
There has been occurrence of many cases related to online payment frauds. E-learning is an easy as well as complex, you are required to be attentive enough to frame out difference between genuine educational service providers and scammers.
We at Law Answer Online are providing online free legal advice for students where our team of legal consultants in Delhi NCR provides solution for such problems