Cheating in the name of tutoring?

Recently, a growing number of fraudsters have been deceiving students by posing as providers of tutoring opportunities on Facebook. These scammers create various tutoring-related groups and lure students with the promise of high-paying tutoring jobs, only to swindle them out of thousands of taka.

University students, in particular, often fall victim to these fraudulent schemes, trusting these offers in the hope of securing a tutoring job. The scammers initially post lucrative tutoring opportunities in different Facebook groups, persuading students to provide personal information, including phone numbers and Facebook profile details.

Later, under the pretext of "registration," these fraudsters ask for OTPs or verification codes. Once they obtain these codes, they hack the students' Facebook or WhatsApp accounts and use them to extort money from their friends and family. In some cases, scammers even lure students into secluded locations under the guise of tutoring interviews and then demand ransom.

Unfortunately, reporting these incidents to the police has yielded little to no result. Even legal action under the Digital Security Act has failed to ensure justice for the victims. As a result, such scams are increasing at an alarming rate.

I urge the authorities to take immediate action against these fraudulent groups, bring the culprits to justice, and enforce strict punishments to prevent further exploitation of students.

Fatema Ferdousi Raka

Student, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Jagannath University, Dhaka

fatemaraka4@gmail.com