A Chinese university has released a list of 30 fake universities in an attempt to warn students against these bogus institutions as they leave school and prepare for college.

The new list, released by a Chinese university information website that has helped blow the whistle on nearly 400 fraudulent institutions since 2013, includes universities and colleges spanning across China's 12 provinces, including Beijing and Shanghai, according to local news outlet Xinhua.

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The list is compiled with the help of netizens across the nation, who submit tips of fake universities to the website through email and social media, based on which the website then conducts an investigation, according to founder, Xia Xue.

"It is easy to see through the trick when they fake the names of well-known universities, but it is more difficult to identify if lesser-known institutions are faked," said Xia.

These fradulent colleges have been known to trick prospective students into sending them tuition fees while pretending to be a legitimate institution of higher education.

There have been cases where students have even attended the bogus universities for years before realizing on the day of their graduation that they had been duped and the college was a complete fake.  

Xia added that the fraudsters use misleading names that are similar to reputable universities and also set up official websites that are similar to genuine institutions, using information and content stolen from their websites.

Three of the fake institutions in the Guangdong, Shandong and Hunan provinces of China were found to have the same IP address, which was traced to Hong Kong, suggesting that the same fraudsters are running several bogus colleges.

Tagschina, fake universities, fake colleges, students, education, China Fake Universities, China fake colleges, Fake