The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has issued an alert on the spread of false, deceptive, and illegal messages aimed at applicants registered for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The Board stated that the messages were distributed by suspected fraudsters with the purpose to deceive unsuspecting individuals.
JAMB Spokesperson, Dr Fabian Benjamin, in a statement said the perpetrators had exploited the numerical variant of UTME, 8863, and merged it with the Board’s sort code, 55019, to create a deceptive sort code that mimics JAMB’s official messaging system.
He said, “Through this fraudulent scheme, they have been sending misleading messages to candidates, falsely claiming to detect manipulations in their JAMB details and urging them to contact certain individuals who will ‘assist’ in resolving these fabricated issues.
“We want to emphasize that these messages are not from JAMB. Security agencies have been notified and are actively tracking the perpetrators behind this scam.”
He advised the candidates to ignore such messages, describing it as a common tactic employed by fraudsters who seek to exploit the examination period to deceive and defraud innocent candidates.
“The public is urged to remain vigilant and critically assess the messages they receive. Any communication that does not align with JAMB’s official channels or uses suspicious language or instructions should be treated as fraudulent,” Benjamin added.
