TN aspirants get dubious calls promising med seats

City student V Dhanvanth, who qualified in NEET this year, claims he has been receiving at least three calls a day with the promise of a medical seat in a government or private medical college. “Some of them claim to have ties with private and government medical colleges and guarantee seats on an initial deposit of a few lakhs. I have stopped attending calls from unknown numbers due to this,” he says.

Sources say that most agencies get contact details of prospective clients from NEET coaching centres and start approaching them. Sarath Kumar from Madurai was contacted by one such private coaching institution through social media and was asked to pay only the commission amount for reserving a medical seat. “I am not even sure if any such a coaching institution exists,” he says.

Three people from Vellore were recently arrested for cheating a Chengalpattu-based man of Rs 57 lakh after they promised to get his son a seat in Christian Medical College and Hospital. Even as international travel remains an uncertainty, offers for overseas medical seats in Philippines and Russia are also flooding students. However, top Directorate of Medical Education officials have warned the public to not fall prey to these promises.