No one can guarantee Harvard, so here is how to spot a study-abroad scam

The news of Laiba Ijaz’s death stayed with me. As the CEO of an education consultancy, I have spent nearly a decade meeting students who hope to study abroad and families prepared to make considerable sacrifices to help them. Her case is a painful reminder of what is at stake when that hope is exploited.

Laiba was a graduate and gold medalist of the International Islamic University Islamabad. According to news reports, she and her family were allegedly defrauded of millions of rupees by people promising admission to Harvard University and assistance with a US visa. The investigation is ongoing, and the facts must be established through due process. Even so, the case raises urgent questions about how we protect students and their families from education scams.

This takes me back to Ali*, a promising student of my 2023 batch of undergraduate applicants, who had appeared at my office with a somewhat similar situation. Fixated at a top tier university and without due diligence, he had paid an individual a handsome amount of Rs3million in the name of service charges, as they were connivingly convincing with their words of a better future for Ali. In return, his counselor drafted a fake rejection letter so that Ali would enroll in a commissionable university. When he approached me in utter distress, my team and I investigated his rejection letter as it looked suspicious and was missing key details. I urged him to get in touch with the university via email to verify the authenticity of the rejection letter. Upon reaching out to the university he found out that no application under his name had been submitted, and Ali was scammed into paying a hefty amount guaranteeing him a spot at his dream destination.

Given Pakistan’s economic challenges, I understand why so many students want to study overseas. They hope for stronger qualifications and better career opportunities. For their families, that decision can mean years of saving and difficult financial choices. It also makes them vulnerable to anyone offering a shortcut.

I believe those of us working in international education have a responsibility to speak openly about fraud. I do not want families to lose faith in studying abroad. I want them to understand what a genuine consultant can do, what no consultant can promise, and how to tell the difference.

No one can guarantee admission or a visa

In spring of 2025, Areeba* and her family came to my office after another agency had promised their daughter........

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