The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has once again needed to issue a general warning to students to avoid scams involving their accounts, this time for random replies on Twitter.

As shown in a screenshot below the scammers use Twitter accounts to reply to students promising them help with their accounts over email or WhatsApp.

The scammers use a proven technique here with extra puppet accounts which give praise to scammers stating that they have used their services before with great success.

NSFAS and similar institutions have had to put out warnings like this many times in the past.

SCAM ALERT!! If you receive or see a message/post regarding your myNSFAS account similar to the ones on the image below, please note that it is a scam. pic.twitter.com/Kz3lAfMDvL

— NSFAS (@myNSFAS) October 4, 2021

To understand why these kinds of scams are so popular it’s important to know just what an uphill battle students face when it comes to higher education, especially around funding said education.

We’ve seen outcries like this on Twitter were students got hashtags like #NSFAS and #UselessUnisa trending on the social media platform due to failed service delivery or massive delays.

Whenever students feel like they are not being heard by the institutions that are supposed to help them they seek help, or at least commiseration from fellow students, on places like Twitter.

Stuck between money worries on top of all the other stresses that come with higher education, these scammers swoop in and try an prey on the vulnerable.

So with this context it’s no surprise that scams continue and NSFAS needs to stay on top of the ball to warn them.

“Report any suspicious messages or calls from fraudsters to the Vuvuzela Hotline on 0860 247 653. We urge you to NEVER share your personal details or NSFAS Wallet account details with anyone,” NSFAS concludes.