📰 From the news · Fake admission / seat promise
Reels, fake testimonials and forged offer letters: the Ghaziabad consultancy that sold "admissions" in Spain, Poland and Germany
In July 2024, six families walked into Kaushambi police station in Ghaziabad with the same story. Each had paid a local education consultancy, reported by The Quint as "The Internationally", between ₹15 and ₹20 lakh for a medical seat in Europe — Spain, Poland or Germany — and each had just learned that the admission letters they were holding were not real.
According to the report, the pipeline started on social media. Short video ads on reels promised European medical degrees for Indian students, backed by testimonials from "successful" aspirants who claimed to be studying at well-known universities, including the University of Barcelona. Families who responded were introduced to "counterparts" abroad — people presented as the consultancy's partners in Poland, Germany and Spain — which made the operation feel established and international.
The money was structured to look reasonable. Parents were asked for roughly half before departure, described as tuition and hostel, and the remainder after a language course. One parent told The Quint they paid ₹9 lakh up front; another had deposited more than ₹20 lakh in total.
The fraud surfaced at the visa stage. When embassies checked the admission documents with the universities, the universities answered that the letters were false. One parent's words in the report: the documents regarding her daughter's college admission "are false". After that, families said, the consultancy's staff either stopped answering or made threatening calls alleging misconduct by the student — a tactic that discourages victims from going to the police.
The complaints were registered on 4 July 2024 under IPC sections 406, 420, 467–471 and 506 (criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and criminal intimidation). Police froze bank accounts linked to the consultancy; one accused, named in the report as Archana Gautam, was arrested by Mumbai Police, while Vivek Kumar, Rahul Gautam and three others were reported to be at large at the time of publication. All of the accused are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Why this pattern works: the "proof" a family sees — polished videos, testimonials, foreign partners on a call — is all produced by the seller. Nothing in the chain came from the university. A single email to the university's international office, from an address on the university's own website, would have exposed the letters months before the visa refusal did.
What to do instead: verify every offer letter directly with the university; pay tuition only to the university's account; treat testimonials in ads as advertising, not evidence; and check any consultancy name on TrustMBBS before you pay.
Were you affected by this case, or something like it? Report it with your own evidence, or tell your story — first-person accounts are what stop the next family.
This is a news-sourced case summary written by the TrustMBBS team, not a first-person account; see the sources above. They reflect one person's experience and are not a verdict on any institution. Report your own: Report a scam or tell your story.