Beware Of The Hoax: MATSEC Warns Students About Fake ‘Resit Exam’ Emails
The Malta Matriculation and Secondary Education Certificate (MATSEC) examination board has issued a warning to students about a recent hoax email.
This deceptive email in question informs students that they need to re-sit some of their exams as their original papers were “damaged in a fire”.
The email, sent out last Tuesday, was reportedly sent to a number of students. Its subject line read “O-level rescheduling”, and it was addressed to parents.
According to the content of the message, a fire in the storage unit supposedly damaged a batch of examination papers. The email advised that “candidates with damaged papers are to take the exam again.”
The fraudulent email provided a timetable for 12 rescheduled exams, starting with Mathematics Paper 1B, supposedly slated for Wednesday between 3 and 7.30pm.
The email also listed other exams, covering subjects like English literature, religion, biology, and environmental studies, which would supposedly continue until 9th June. Notably, no information about the exam venue was included in the email.
The email originated from the address [email protected], which is not an official MATSEC communication channel. MATSEC emphasised that students should only communicate through official emails.
This incident serves as a stark reminder of the growing trend of spoof emails and fake websites, which are becoming increasingly harder to detect locally.
Recently, both the Bank of Valletta (BOV) and APS Bank have urged their customers to be more cautious of similar scams involving fake emails and SMS messages that impersonate the banks and ask for personal details.
Did you receive any of these fake emails?