The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has raised an alarm over the circulation of false, misleading, and criminal messages targeting candidates registered for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME.
The board’s spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, raised the alarm in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
Benjamin said the messages were being disseminated by suspected fraudsters with the intent to defraud unsuspecting individuals.
According to him, the perpetrators have exploited the numerical variant of UTME, 8863, and merged it with the Board’s sort code, 55019, to create a deceptive sort code that mimics JAMB’s official messaging system.
“Through this fraudulent scheme, they have been sending misleading messages to candidates, falsely claiming to detect manipulations in their JAMB details and urging them to contact certain individuals who will assist in resolving these fabricated issues.
“We want to emphasize that these messages are not from JAMB. Security agencies have been notified and are actively tracking the perpetrators behind this scam.
“Candidates are strongly advised to ignore such messages. This is a common tactic employed by fraudsters who seek to exploit the examination period to deceive and defraud innocent candidates,” he said.
The tertiary institution examination body urged the public to remain vigilant and critically assess the messages they receive.
It added that any communication that does not align with its official channels or uses suspicious language or instructions should be treated as fraudulent.
