The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (Sri Lanka CERT) has issued an urgent warning over fraudulent social media advertisements offering admission to foreign universities, Hiru News reported.
In an official statement, the agency said it has received multiple complaints from students and parents who lost lakhs of rupees after responding to these recruitment offers.
What the advertisements promise
According to CERT, the posts circulating on social media platforms falsely offer:
- admission to overseas universities
- guaranteed visas to travel abroad
- work permits valid for several years
- eventual citizenship in the destination country
The agency said a significant proportion of these advertisements are entirely fraudulent, and urged the public to verify any academic offer through official channels before making a financial commitment.
A recurring pattern
The warning is the latest in a run of advisories from the agency this year targeting social-media-based fraud, including a campaign against online financial scams around the Vesak and Poson season and a warning over AI-generated deepfake videos of the President and Prime Minister used to promote fake investments. The common thread is an offer that arrives through a social platform and asks for money to be moved before anything can be checked.
Not reported
Sri Lanka CERT did not say how many complaints it has received, how much money has been lost in total, or over what period. The statement does not name the platforms carrying the advertisements, the countries or universities being impersonated, or whether any operators have been identified. No police investigation is mentioned, and the agency did not say where victims should report a loss.
