Technology/Science
BEWARE!! - How Online Scammers Fooled one of Africa’s Biggest Fintech Startups By Quartz Africa Weekly Brief
JAMES UCHE REMEMBERS HOW he frantically fought against a deadline to submit an English proficiency certificate to secure a scholarship for an undergraduate biotech degree at McMaster University in Canada. His full ride to McMaster was being sponsored by the St. Michael Foundation. When it offered him its international scholarship in midJanuary, the foundation gave him two options to meet the English requirement. He could take the International English Language Testing System, or IELTS, a common standardized test for non-native English speakers, or an alternative recommended by St. Michael. Called the Online International English Proficiency Examination (OIEPE), it was touted in its website as the world’s premier English language test for international 88
May-June 2021
study, work, and immigration, accepted by more than 11,000 universities in over 150 countries. All Uche needed was to follow a link provided by the foundation to create a profile and pay the sum of 10,500 naira (about $25) via digital payments startup Paystack (https://paystack.com) to generate the test access pin. The first two times he tried, the pin expired shortly after he got it. Anxious of losing his scholarship, he used another email to create a new profile and his mother’s debit card to pay again, altogether spending $75. Each time, he got a receipt from Paystack. Uche succeeded on his third attempt. The test took him less than an hour and he scored 57%, far above the 40% required for his scholarship. He received his English proficiency certificate by email a few hours later, signed by both OIEPE’s DAWN
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