Flinders University has become aware of a number of scams where students are offered either a discount on their tuition fees, or an interest free loan to pay their tuition fees.

Students are required to provide the scammer with an initial payment, their student login and password details. Payments are then made to the University using stolen credit cards which are then disputed by the card holders. These payments are then reversed, leaving the student with outstanding original tuition fees and without the money they paid to the scammer. This situation may also impact the student’s enrolment status if the account is outstanding.

Scams of this nature may be advertised on social media, shared with you through a friend or acquaintance, or advertised to family in your home country. If you receive an offer for a discount on your tuition fees, it is likely to be a scam.

Warning Signs:

• People or organisations offering discounts for your tuition fees
• People or organisations may provide you with a small discount for other bills (i.e. phone or utility bill) to gain your trust
• Minimal details about the organisation or person involved in the discount are provided to you
• No terms or conditions for the payment of your tuition
• Inflexible payment options (i.e. immediate payments, payments in full or only by electronic funds transfer)
• Tell you not to tell your family or the University

To help protect yourself, remember:

• Flinders will not ask you for your bank account information. Do not provide your bank account information to people you don’t know.
• Flinders University does not offer discounts on tuition fees.
• To make tuition payments from your account directly to the University through your Okta dashboard – this is the safest payment method.
• To keep your Okta login details private – do not provide your login details to other people.

Log onto Scam Watch and read about common types of scams.

If you think you may have been caught in a tuition fee scam, please immediately change your login password and advise the University (call 08 8201 5511 or email studentfinance@flinders.edu.au) so they can check your student finance account.