LAHORE: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on Monday arrested two suspects for allegedly altering the marks, grades and attendance records of students at the Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) in exchange for money.
According to a spokesperson, a technical examination of the university’s audit records had uncovered 72 unauthorised changes involving the academic records of 33 students enrolled in 12 different degree programmes. The action was taken on a complaint of the GCUF deputy registrar. The suspects allegedly charged students around Rs15,000 per subject for changing marks and grades or manipulating attendance records.
In several cases, the academic records of individual students were altered in more than one subject.
The money was subsequently transferred through a network of intermediary and merchant accounts before being withdrawn in cash. The payments of several students were cross-checked with the university’s audit records, which documented the alleged alterations.
The arrested suspects Ahsan Shafiq and Nauman Jaffer received the money and facilitated its transfer and withdrawal through different accounts and possessed expertise in web development and online systems.
NCCIA Punjab Director Hassam Bin Iqbal said action would continue against those involved in illegally accessing educational institutions’ online systems and tampering with academic records for financial gain.
-Staff Reporter