Scamsters swindle money under pretext of scholarship

AN unidentified gang has been defrauding parents of college students in Coimbatore and swindling money on the pretext of crediting a scholarship amount for their children's higher education.

- EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Coimbatore

Affected students and parents complained to the city's cybercrime police unit, urging action against scammers.

Employing sophisticated methods, scammers target parents of college students, claiming to be calling from the Tamil Nadu School Education Department under the 'Illam Thedi Kalvi' scheme. They then promise parents educational scholarships payments via Google Pay and PhonePe.

In a shocking incident, seven students who had studied at a government-aided school in the city three years ago and are now pursuing higher education in different colleges, became victims of the fraud, and a few had lodged a complaint. Police said they have received around 36 such complaints from students who had completed their school education at select educational institutions in the city.