Check an offer letter is genuine
Six checks, in order, that catch a forged or altered university offer letter before you pay anything. Work through them and you will know whether the offer is real — or whether to stop.
If you have already paid and something feels wrong, act now. Contact your bank immediately and ask about a recall or chargeback — recovery is sometimes possible in the first days and rarely possible later. Then report it to the university whose name was used, using contact details from their official site.
Work through these in order
They are ordered on purpose. The first one makes the rest unnecessary if it fails.
- 1
Confirm the institution exists before you read the letter
A perfect-looking letter from an institution that is not on a government register is worth nothing. Start there, not with the document.
Open the recognition check - 2
Check the sending domain character by character
Legitimate offers come from the university's own domain. Fakes use a free address, or a lookalike domain with a swapped or inserted character —
-eduinstead of.edu,rninstead ofm, an extra hyphen. Compare the sender against the domain on the register entry, not against the letterhead. - 3
Verify the reference number using a phone number you found yourself
Call or email the admissions office using contact details from the university's official website or its register entry. Never use a number, email or WhatsApp printed on the letter, and never one an agent gives you. Ask them to confirm the application reference and your name. This single step catches most forgeries.
- 4
Compare the fees against the university's published tuition
Fakes often quote a figure that is plausible but does not match the published fee for that programme and intake. A discount you did not negotiate is a warning sign, not a win.
- 5
Refuse any payment that is not to an institutional account
Pay the university, in the university's own name, through the payment route named on its own website. Never a personal account, never cash, never crypto, never an agent's account — whatever the deadline pressure. This is where the money is actually lost.
How deposit scams work - 6
Check the letter against your own application
Your name spelled exactly as on your passport, a programme you actually applied for, a start date that matches the intake, a conditional offer that lists conditions you recognise. Mismatches here also cause visa refusals later even when the offer is genuine.
Offer letter discrepancies and visa refusals
Still not sure? Send it to us.
Forward the offer letter and the university name. We will tell you what the official register says, whether the document is consistent with it, and what to do next. Free, and we will say plainly if it looks wrong.
