A portal website of the University of N. New Jersey which has recently been uncovered as the phishing site of a bogus college has been created and manipulated by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a bid to crack down on illegal educational agencies.

About 22 illegal educational agencies that fell into the trap developed by the DHS have been clamped down, thanks to the joint efforts of the DHS and local police.

Those agencies continued to attract overseas students; nevertheless, they knew quite well that the information provided by the false university was merely a fabrication.

Falsely describing it as a university in Cranford, New Jersey, some 25 kilometers away from New York City, the website of the counterfeit educational institute showed an array of information and graphics, depicting it as a place of cultural diversity while presenting the design of its school badge which was very similar to that of Princeton University.

Many overseas students said they had never heard of the university so that they were truly skeptical about its credibility. However, the qualifications of the university both as an institute of higher education and a campus providing philological English training could be found being granted by the U.S. Department of Education whose official website was tied to the school.

An overseas Chinese student who was involved in the scandal said, "The school had a mark guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Education on its website and its credibility as a university being able to issue F-1 visas was endorsed by the DHS on its official website. Moreover, a number of people coaxed the students by sending fake photos proclaiming they had once been there, and that they took photos with the 'president'."

The U.S. police revealed that the case has involved 1,076 students formed by a majority of Chinese and Indian applicants, who have not yet faced criminal charges. However, according to the "Immigration Act," as long as those students choose to leave voluntarily with no record of being deported, making no appearances at immigration court, they won't encounter severe consequences.

But for those choosing to stay until the verdicts of the immigration court come out, they will probably be asked to leave within 180 days or they will be banned from the crossing the border for three years; They may also be asked to leave within one year or be banned entrance for 10 years.

Many students claimed that they are innocent, because they have been granted the official information of the university even though it has never existed. Some of them were from famous universities, such as Harvard University, who attempted to make a change of their majors in hope that they may be more competent in the sluggish job markets.

"When I received a message from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, I was asked to leave the country or restore my identity immediately. I chose the latter," an overseas student said anonymously.

"I was completely innocent and felt I was cheated by the school, the agency, and most importantly, the DHS," the student continued.

The establishment of a phishing site for a fake university in order to crack down on illegal educational agencies lurking in the market has drawn a great amount of social concerns which question the motive of the DHS. Some people voiced their sympathy to the students who exerted great effort to apply for admittance to the school only to learn of its use as a means of phishing.

However, the DHS protested that those students are not innocent and that they certainly understood what kind of school it was. Their only purpose in registering for the school was to stay in the United States by spending money.

To entrap and expose the misconduct of the suspects is a defense tactic stipulated in "the Criminal Law" of the United States, however, such a scheme is not applicable to "the Immigration Law."

Legal experts advised the students to quickly have their identities restored and proactively defend their rights if they indeed have to respond to prosecution.

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