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Scam Alert: HUST Admission Scam Alert: Fake Officers Demand Payment. Here Is What the Scam Looks Like

Consumer Rights Sep 30, 2026HUST Admission Scam Alert: Fake Officers Demand Payment. Here Is What the Scam Looks Like

Posted on by Kemetic Mind
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Consumer Rights · Scam Alert · September 30, 2026, 1:10 PM CDT · Revised September 30, 2026, 1:22 PM CDT

Key Facts

  • Hillside University of Science and Technology (HUST), Okemesi-Ekiti, Nigeria, warned prospective students that fraudsters are impersonating its Vice-Chancellor and other principal officers.[1]
  • The university said the fraudsters contact applicants and demand money to “facilitate” admission, and that HUST “does not sell admission.”[1]
  • Its advice: apply only through the official admission portal, pay only through official university channels, and never send money to a personal or third-party account.[1]

HUST says people are being phoned and messaged by someone pretending to be a university official, and asked to pay for a place.

The university said the suspected fraudsters are contacting applicants and demanding money to “facilitate” admission.[1] Its notice said applicants who get such a call or message should not make any payment, even when the person claims to be a university official.[1]

What the Scam Looks Like

HUST has not published the fraudsters’ own messages, so none of theirs is shown here. The scam itself is not new: other Nigerian universities and a fact-checker have published real examples of the same trick. They are shown below, each labeled with whose message it is and where it was published. They are quoted text, not screenshots.

Example 1: a fake “discretionary admission” offer (University of Lagos, October 2024)
Facebook post, quoted in part by Africa Check
“UNILAG Aspirants Who Did Not Meet the Cutoff Mark. Discretionary Admission Opportunity for UTME Aspirants. If you scored below the cutoff mark, you may consider submitting a Letter of Discretionary Admission.”
1Offers admission to people who did not qualify. The University of Lagos said it has nothing to do with such offers and that all admissions follow the procedures on its own website.[2]
2Invents a process (“Letter of Discretionary Admission”) that turns into a payment step.
Example 2: a fake “eligibility fee” payment request (Redeemer’s University, September 2025)
Payment details circulated online and in direct messages, as reported by Redeemer’s University
Account name Paybill Records for RUN
Account number 6004880363
Bank Beststar MFB
Amount ₦128,200 “eligibility fee”
Claimed to be “mandatory for securing admission.”
3The account is not the university’s. Redeemer’s said this was not an official payment request and that official payments are communicated only through its website, admissions-unit emails or institutional notices.[3]
4A made-up “eligibility fee.” The university said no such fee is required.[3]
Example 3: a fake “accept your admission” message (University of Abuja)
Fake admission messages on social media and messaging apps, as described by the University of Abuja
Messages “asking candidates to respond with personal details to ‘accept’ admission.”
5Tells you to “accept” admission by replying with personal details. The University of Abuja said no admission list had been released and it was not connected to any phone numbers or instructions in such messages.[4]

The Warning Signs, Numbered

  1. 1An offer of admission for people who did not meet the requirements.
  2. 2A special process no one has heard of, with a fee at the end.
  3. 3A payment account with an unofficial or personal-looking name.
  4. 4A fee the university says it does not charge.
  5. 5A message telling you to reply with personal details to “accept” a place.

How to Protect Yourself

  • Apply only through the university’s official admission portal, and confirm every instruction on its official website.[1]
  • Make payments only through official university channels, never to a personal or third-party account.[1]
  • Do not pay after a call or message like this, even if the caller says they are the Vice-Chancellor or another officer.[1]
  • To check, use the contact details on the university’s own website. HUST’s notice lists the Registrar’s email as registrar@hust.edu.ng and a phone number of 09119429029.[1] Confirm them on hust.edu.ng before you rely on them.

How to Verify This Yourself

Read the HUST notice as reported by MySchoolGist, the fact-check at Africa Check, Redeemer’s University’s warning as reported by The Nigeria Education News, and the University of Abuja notice at AllSchool.ng. Those pages are the primary sources for everything above.

References

  1. MySchoolGist. HUST Admission Scam Alert: Do Not Pay Fake Officers. ↩
  2. Africa Check. Nigeria’s University of Lagos warns of scammers as it disowns ‘discretionary admission opportunities’ on Facebook. ↩
  3. The Nigeria Education News. Redeemer’s University warns against admission scam demanding fake “eligibility fee.” September 7, 2025. ↩
  4. AllSchool.ng. UNIABUJA Disclaimer Notice on Admission Fraudsters. ↩

Investigative methodology: this post was first produced automatically from the MySchoolGist report, which carried no example of the scam and whose only image was a generic warning banner. It was revised by hand: the HUST facts come from that report, and the three examples are quoted from Africa Check, Redeemer’s University (via The Nigeria Education News) and the University of Abuja (via AllSchool.ng). Examples 1 to 3 are messages about other universities and are shown only to illustrate the same scam. No message from HUST’s fraudsters is shown, and none was invented.

Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk

Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk

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