JAMB says providing email addresses at the point of UTME registration exposes candidates to various forms of manipulation and distortion of their personal details by fraudsters.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said candidates will no longer provide email addresses at the point of registration for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
JAMB Registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, who disclosed this while addressing journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, said the change, would take effect from Thursday.
He said the board made the adjustment to protect candidates from various forms of manipulation and distortion of their personal details by some fraudulent cyber cafe operators.
“They gain access to profiles of these candidates under the pretence of creating an email address for them.
“Then they change and block the candidates from receiving messages from the board. They also extort them after they change their passwords.
“In view of this, the board has come up with adjustments to our operations.
“The first decision is that beginning from Thursday, April 15, candidates would no longer be required to provide any email address during registration from this year onwards.
“It is by going to these cyber cafes to open emails that these candidates are open to abuse and stealing of their personal data,’’ he said.
He said the board now had a mobile app that would allow candidates to deal directly with the board with their smartphones or via SMS to ‘55019’ code option.
