A gang of fraudsters has targeted some Saudi scholarship students in the UK by collecting information by posing as travel agents and withdraw money from their bank accounts.

The modus operandi of the cheats is simple: Call the students, introduce themselves as representatives of a travel agencey and offer to book low-price air tickets. An unsuspecting student makes the mistake of revealing his bank account details and cash is siphoned off.

A Ph.D. student, Saleh bin Mayouf, said some scholarship students have been victimized through phone calls from unknown persons who had an Asian accent. “Similar things had happened eight months ago and the problem has started again.”

Saleh suspects an agency must have supplied the fraudsters with information about the students. He said that the cultural attaché should take necessary measures to protect the students from the gang.

Naif Al-Saeed, another student, said the personal details of the scholarship students must have leaked through one of the companies that have contracts with the cultural attaché or through hacking of the website.

He said that the Saudi cultural attaché should track down the source of the leak, try to fix it and compensate the students who have been cheated.

Another student said she was given her name, her date of birth and names of her family members by the fraudster. “I was going to complete my travel arrangements through them but changed my mind.”

Basma Sabah, another student in Leicester, said the “company” called her but she told them she was not going back to the Kingdom in the near future and that they need not call her again.

A group of Saudi student in Bedfordshire have issued alerts through Twitter about students in Luton being cheated.