The attention of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has been drawn to a story making the rounds that certain persons have been using the university’s portal to contact students directly, showing them their current status and requesting money to clear their outstanding carryover courses.
A screenshot of a purported chat between the university and one of the affected students has shown.
However, NOUN management in a statement by the director of media and publicity, Ibrahim Sheme, said all NOUN students and the general public should be aware that the university is unaware of any hacking of its portal and has not asked any of its students to pay money to anybody to clear their outstanding carryover courses.
“The said request is fake and we believe its the handiwork of unscrupulous elements desperately wishing to defraud unsuspecting students of the university.
“As far as we know, our portal has not been hacked and we have taken strong measures to further safeguard it. NOUN students should ignore the said request. Anybody who received such a request should alert their Study Centre so that necessary action can be taken against the source of the misinformation,” the statement noted.
