International students are significantly falling prey to payment rip-offs. Drawn by pledges of reduced tuition fees or impossibly low foreign exchange rates, they are fooled by social engineering into sending out funds to fake university payment websites or using unauthorised payment platforms to pay tuition charges. When the funds are sent out, trainees and families frequently have little option to recover them.
In this environment, the stakes of sending a tuition payment in a protected manner are high. As IDP education associate director Sanjib Barman put it during a recent Flywire webinar: “This is not simply a deal. It’s visa-critical. It’s a compliance-heavy journey where any shortcut can lead to really severe effects.”
What steps can institutions take to better secure trainees from these payment scams? Here are 5 pieces of recommendations that came from a current discussion with leaders of financing and enrolment, education representatives and banking throughout that webinar.
1. Make sure payment pathways are clear to global trainees
A best practice is to record accepted payment paths in the contracts of education representatives and counsellors. Ensure students and households understand that they must use only an institution-authorised third-party payment system when dealing with an education representative.
2. Count on vetted, recognized representative relationships as a first line of defence
Vetted and recognized education agents are critical in securing students and households from making bad decisions when it comes to sending funds for tuition. At IDP, for example, counsellors receive regular training on everything from how to identify fraud, to how to suppress a household’s natural inclination to use a reduced channel by shifting the conversation from saving money in the minute, to protecting their financial future. Trusted institution-agent relationships protect the institution also, by getting rid of administrative friction and assisting protected quality enrolments.
3. Educate on the covert issues of not using an approved payment provider
Relatedly, as agents are the very first line of defence, equip them with the best payment tools to guarantee safe and safe and secure deals. Even in the event the payment is successfully provided to the institution, utilizing a non-sanctioned payment company can result in issues down the road. For example, need to the trainee requirement to stop studying and require a refund, organizations need to lawfully reimburse the money back to the original source, Chen stated, which typically presents an issue if the individual or platform will not then reimburse the trainee or household.
4. Make sure high levels of payment visibility and security
Payments should be traceable by both the sender and the organization– with status updates from ensured through delivered. Exposure allows timely issuance of documents needed for visas. Payment security and scams controls constructed into platforms help reduce danger for the organization– including KYC verification, advanced fraud detection, behavioural analytics, data intelligence, transaction tracking, and more to flag and reduce suspicious activity.
5. Balance security and friction to make payments seamless
Cross-border payments are intricate. However for the sender and the receiver, they do not need to be intricate. Strong collaborations between regulated entities and Institution-appointed payment partners are critical in this regard. When whatever works as it should, trust is ensured. And trainees and households can concentrate on their journey and the institution can effectively process payments.
Protecting international students from sophisticated payment scams is no longer simply an administrative job for university finance departments– it is a core obligation of trainee well-being and institutional danger management.
About the author: Prakash Venkataramani is senior director of payments at Flywire