The Indian media is reporting that, on 24 February 2022, police in Hyderabad arrested several people suspected of being involved in a fake education certificate racket. One of those arrested is Syed Naveed who is described as the “owner of Cubez Overseas Education Services in Yakutpura.”
Police allege that Naveed and an associate, Syed Nadheem, sold students fake certificates from various educational institutions, including Osmania University. A senior police officer involved with the investigation said “Naveed got into the racket to make money by providing fake certificates to students with low marks and sending them abroad.”
2 strikes
Naveed was also reportedly arrested on 18 December 2021 on suspicion of preparing fake education certificates. At that time Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said during a press conference:
“Since his earnings were insufficient, he hatched a plan to prepare fake certificates and documents like fake salary slips, medical fitness certificates, job offer and relieving letters. He was collecting ₹50,000 to ₹75,000 for his services. The accused scans original certificates of candidates to prepare fake certificates. He then edits the name and roll numbers using a software in his computers. He edits these columns depending to the customers’ requirement and delivers the fake education certificate.”
The video of the police media conference is below:
Cubez Overseas Education Services was contacted for comment but no response was received by the time of publication.
Links to educational institutions
During the media conference, Hyderabad police mentioned by name the following educational institutions as those to which the accused had sought to gain admission for students (the police officer reads the list aloud beginning at 1:40 in the video above):
- University of Law – UK
- Teesside University – UK
- Heriot-Watt University – UK
- Schiller University – USA
- Concordia University – USA
“Student success” photos on the company’s website show students against a backdrop of “Cubez Overseas” logos, and the logos of the following institutions:
- CQU (Central Queensland University)
- Charles Sturt University
- Coventry University
- De Montfort University
- Durham College
- Griffith University
- La Trobe University
- Seneca
- Southern Cross University
- St. Lawrence College
- University of Bristol
- University of New South Wales (UNSW)
- University of Portsmouth
- University of Tasmania
How are you managing education agent risk?
Unprofessional or dishonest education agents can cause significant harm to your students and your institution’s reputation.
- How are you checking new agents before agreeing to work with them?
- What regular checks are you running on your current agents?
- How will you know if your institution’s name and logo is being used without your permission?
Our education agent checking and monitoring solution contains hundreds of reports on alleged and actual education agent misconduct from all over the world, dating back to 2000.
Educational institutions can use it to:
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- protect your brand – search on your institution’s name to detect cases of unauthorised agents using your institution’s name, logo or other IP without permission.
