Email scam directed at international students

Some students and offer holders have received emails claiming to be from the University of Birmingham, requesting that they transfer money to a particular account and stating that the payment is ‘mandatory for all applicants’.

These emails are NOT from the University of Birmingham; we do not ask you to make payments like this.

Please do not transfer any money if you are unsure about the sender of an email, or a request being made.

Some of the features of these scam emails that we are aware of include:

• Incorrect street address for the University
• Incorrect University contact details
• Grammar and formatting errors in the body of the text
• Email ‘from’ address is not from a University sender – if you hover your cursor over the ‘from’ field, this will display the sending address
• Account name listed as ‘Stu Assist’
• Text stating that the payment is ‘mandatory for all applicants who are aiming to study at the University of Birmingham and it is for the services you shall receive in the UK such as Airport Collection, Accommodation, Legal, Translation, Helpline and General Assistance.’

Please be aware that the University of Birmingham does not ask students to make payments such as this.

If you think you have received a scam email, please:

• Do not reply to the email
• Do not click on any links within the email or open any attachments
• Do not transfer any money
• Contact the IST to let us know what has happened, making sure you forward us any email(s) you have received

You can also report your suspicions or any incidents to Action Fraud. If you have already transferred money and think you may have compromised the safety of your bank details, you should contact your bank immediately.

You may be interested to read our further advice on avoiding scams.

We would like to ask all applicants and students to be vigilant in this matter. Please contact the IST should you have any questions.