A Chinese university information website has released a list of 30 fake colleges as students begin applying to universities following the annual college entrance exam earlier June.

在6月上旬的高考结束之后，学生们开始报考大学。此时，中国的一家大学信息网站公布了30所虚假大学名单。

This is the sixth such list released by sdaxue.com. Prior¹ to the latest release, it had already exposed some 400 universities as fake since 2013.

这已经是“上大学网”公布的第六批虚假大学名单。在公布最新名单之前，“上大学网”自2013年已经曝光了大约400所虚假大学。

Netizens from across the country reported the names of fake colleges to the website through e-mail and social media. Website staff then investigated them, according to Xia Xue, founder² of the website.

“上大学网”的网站创始人夏雪表示，全国各地的网友通过电子邮件或社交媒体，把虚假大学的名字发给网站，网站工作人员再进行相关调查。

The fake colleges are located in 12 provinces and regions including Beijing, Shanghai and Shandong.

这些虚假大学位于包括北京、上海、山东等在内的全国12个省份和地区。

Unlike in the past, when most of the exposed schools used deceptive³ names and official websites that resembled those of well-known universities, 22 of the 30 fake universities imitated the names of private institutions that provide training courses for the national adult education examination, which can also be used to seek a university degree..

过去，虚假大学大多使用与知名院校相似的假名字和官网。不过现在与之不同的是，本次公布的30所假大学中，有22所是仿冒非学历高等教育机构的名称。为了获得大学学历，有些学生参加教育机构的培训课程，以参加国家成人教育考试。

"It is easy to see through the trick when they fake the names of well-known universities, but it is more difficult to identify if lesser-known institutions are faked," said Xia.

夏雪说：“我们很容易发现仿冒知名院校的虚假大学，但很难鉴定假冒不为人知机构的虚假大学。”

The fake universities send enrollment notices, along with a bank account number, earlier than real schools and ask students to send tuition fees to the account before a deadline.

虚假大学会抢先一步寄出录取通知书，其中附带银行卡号。通知书上告知学生将学费打到账户，逾期不候。

Three fake colleges in the provinces of Guangdong, Shandong and Hunan shared the same IP address registered in Hong Kong, suggesting the same scammers are operating multiple fake colleges.

广东、山东和湖南的三所虚假大学使用的是同一个在香港注册的IP地址，这表明一个骗子操控着多个虚假大学。

Education authorities are coordinating⁴ with police to investigate and close the fake colleges.

教育部门和警方正在协力调查并关闭这些虚假大学。