The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will no longer be communicating directly with students via SMS channels during the 2019 academic year, with immediate effect, and advises students to only use the myNSFAS Online Self-Service Portal to view application status or any other information relating to funding after students were targeted in phishing email and text message scams.
Over the past two weeks, first-time applicants, returning and continuing students have been targeted in these scams that aim to compromise personal data. NSFAS identified scams in which fraudsters lure students into providing confidential information via a link to a site controlled by the attackers. The email or text message scam is designed to look like it is a regular message issued by the NSFAS contact centre.
“Unidentified attackers are posing as NSFAS representatives and sending out emails requesting applicants and progressing students to update their account information by clicking on an embedded link. We would like to warn all the applicants, students and parents to be aware of these fraudsters and take extra care when dealing with their personal information online or over the phone. Any SMS messaging regarding funding received following this message will be from fraudsters and not NSFAS,” says Dr Randall Carolissen, NSFAS administrator.
“We are seeing an increase in fraudulent activities, possibly due to the increase in the number of applications for 2019. We advise every student that NSFAS will never ask for your account details, password, PIN or OTP (one time password) over the phone or via email.”
NSFAS contact centre call centre agents will ensure that suitable precautions are being taken and key security questions are asked to positively identify the person contacted. Other official notices will be published on the NSFAS official website www.nsfas.org.za or the official Twitter page @mynsfas.
NSFAS is working with the law enforcement agencies to investigate the matter.
Book review: BTS Icons of Pop