IGNOU warns students against fraudulent payments; issues advisory

NEW DELHI: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has alerted students against fraudulent and deceptive requests from individuals, falsely claiming to represent the organization. The advisory is issued in response to certain incidents where unauthorized individuals or agencies are reaching out to students through messages, emails, and phone calls.

The institute said that these unscrupulous persons are requesting payments for examination fees, issue of duplicate grade cards and degrees, transcripts, verification of certificates, project and practical fees, revaluation, photocopy of answer sheets etc., through personal emails, telephonic calls and any other modes.

The university informed students that it has not authorized any individual or agency to collect payments on its behalf. The university has further emphasised on making payments exclusively through its official website, ignou.ac.in and following the relevant links available on the website for making payments for admission, re-registration fees etc.

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The institution said that emails regarding admission, re-registration, and other related matters are exclusively sent by the university headquarters (HQ) and the regional centres (RCs). These official communications use email IDs ending with @ignou.ac.in, @samarth.ac.in, @samarth.edu.in.

“All the learners are advised to remain alert and vigilant and prevent themselves from being cheated and share details with local police authorities for stringent action under the law,” IGNOU notice read.

Any emails received from an email ID other than the official one, especially those requesting payments, should be considered fake. Such instances should be reported to the police. IGNOU disclaims responsibility for payments made through fraudulent payment links or websites.