JAMB raises alarm over fraudulent messages to candidates

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has raised alarm over fraudulent messages targeting candidates who registered for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

In a statement issued by the board’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, JAMB said the false messages are being circulated by suspected fraudsters using a deceptive sort code designed to resemble the board’s official messaging system.

JAMB said the scammers combined a numerical variant of UTME, ‘8863’ with JAMB’s short code, ‘55019’, to create a deceptive sender identity.

“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,” the board said.

JAMB clarified that the messages were not from the board and advised candidates to disregard them. It described the scheme as a criminal attempt to exploit the examination season to defraud unsuspecting candidates.

The board added that security agencies have been notified and are actively tracking the perpetrators.

“This is a common tactic employed by fraudsters who seek to exploit the examination period to deceive and defraud innocent candidates. The public is urged to remain vigilant and critically access the messages they receive,” the statement said.

The board added that any communication that does not align with JAMB’s official channels or uses suspicious language or instructions should be treated as fraudulent.

JAMB launches decoy website

Meanwhile, JAMB registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, a professor, said the board has launched a decoy website to identify candidates who tried to pay for leak examination questions and upgrade their UTME scores.

Mr Oloyede said the board has identified 180 candidates who would be sanctioned either by withholding their results or prosecution in a court of law.

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UTME 2025

The UTME is the unified examination candidates must pass to gain admission into Nigerian universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. It is organised by JAMB, which then works with the institutions to grant admissions to qualified candidates.

Over two million candidates registered for this year’s exercise, the board said.

The Computer-Based UTME test is scheduled to begin on 25 April and continue until 5 May.

Last year, over 1.9 million candidates sat the UTME, with 76 per cent of the candidates scoring below 200 of the 400 obtainable scores.