‘Sophisticated fraud’: Impersonators target academics and private universities with lure of government grants

MUMBAI: Academics have become the latest targets of ‘sophisticated fraud'. Impersonators claiming affiliations with leading IITs approach professors and universities with offers to collaborate on high-value projects worth crores falsely presented as being backed by Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF). Their ask: an upfront part payment, framed as necessary to ‘secure' the collaboration and unlock funding, to be routed through an escrow account.

Many of the ‘targets' belong to private universities.

It must be noted that ANRF partners only with institutions and follows a formal, secure process for collaborations. An advisory is expected to be issued soon urging academics and institutions to remain vigilant against such fraudulent activities.

On Sunday, ICT Mumbai's former vice-chancellor G D Yadav sent out an alert about this fraud to fellow academicians. Some of the senior professors and heads of institutions who received his alert, said they received similar messages.

Yadav said the impersonator claimed the proposals are grant-backed and linked to ongoing ANRF scheme, but insists that 2.5% of the project value be transferred to an escrow account, often with a deadline over the weekend. "No legitimate IIT or ANRF process would require advance payments to secure grants or partnerships," said Yadav, urging institutions not to engage or transfer funds and to verify all such communication through official channels.

V Ramgopal Rao, group vice-chancellor of BITS-Pilani, told TOI that he, too, received a message recently. The person sought the VC's time to discuss a funded project worth Rs 24 crore sanctioned in his name. He claimed to be from IIT-Delhi's computer science department. "When I asked him to send a message from his official address, he vanished. This is now becoming like those digital arrest frauds. Many have got such calls it seems," said Rao.

The modus operandi appears calibrated to appear credible. The caller reportedly uses names of known faculty members from leading institutions and refers to current ANRF calls, giving the impression that the offer is both authentic and time-sensitive. He even shares an abstract which gives details on the project, one of which deals with the ‘next-generation AI-driven autonomous surveillance and response network for strategic border infrastructure and threat neutralization'. With ANRF pushing for collaborative research and partnerships between leading institutions and others, such proposals can appear plausible, particularly to institutions keen to scale up research.

A central government official, however, said that the ANRF processes and controls are robust and functioning well. Institutions must regularly audit their expenditures and strengthen internal safeguards. "Additionally, nodal officers from the institutions are being alerted to remain vigilant. An advisory is likely to be issued in the coming week urging academics to be cautious," said the official.

According to Yadav, private universities are especially being targeted. "Many are looking to build collaborations with elite institutes to improve their standing in national rankings such as the National Institutional Ranking Framework, making them more receptive to such pitches. The fraudster is also believed to be approaching promoters or senior management, those who may have the authority to approve large financial commitments, rather than routing proposals through formal academic processes," said Yadav.

Yadav said the approach initially appeared plausible even to him, until he verified the claims with contacts at IIT-Bombay and found them to be false. He added that even experienced individuals can be taken in if due diligence is not exercised.

A similar fraud seemed to have succeeded last year in Pune, when MIT-World Peace University was duped of around Rs 2.5 crore in a proposal that cited a Rs 100-crore grant.

Rahul Karad, executive president of MIT-World Peace University, said educational institutions and government agencies must take serious cognisance of the matter and act on it. "With foreign universities entering the country, such frauds risk tarnishing our reputation globally. We transferred the money only after getting a credible referral. Later, during the investigation we got to know that the impostor even held a PhD degree, which may have made the approach seem credible. The police later helped us recover most of the amount," he said, adding that every paper work seemed genuine.

Academics have been advised to treat requests involving advance payments, urgency, and use of institutional names without verifiable official email addresses as red flags, and to report such incidents to the police.




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