By JACINTA NWACHUKWU

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has dissociated itself from the ongoing circulation of false, misleading, and criminal messages targeting candidates that registered for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The JAMB spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, said these messages were being disseminated by suspected fraudsters with the intent to defraud unsuspecting individuals.

Benjamin noted that the perpetrators had exploited the numerical variant of UTME, 8863, and merged it with the Board?s sort code, ?55019?, to create a deceptive sort code that mimics JAMB?s official messaging system.

According to him, through this fraudulent scheme, they have been sending misleading messages to candidates, falsely claiming to detect manipulations in their JAMB details and urging them to contact certain individuals who will ?assist? in resolving these fabricated issues.

?We want to emphasise that these messages are not from JAMB. Security agencies have been notified and are actively tracking the perpetrators behind this scam.

?Candidates are strongly advised to ignore such messages. This is a common tactic employed by fraudsters, who seek to exploit the examination period to deceive and defraud innocent candidates.

He, therefore, urged the general public to remain vigilant and critically assess the messages they receive, adding that any communication that does not align with JAMB?s official channels or uses suspicious language or instructions should be treated as fraudulent. (NAN)