Udupi — An 18-year-old boy from Udupi has landed in trouble after paying ₹17,000 to a scammer via YouTube for a digitally doctored NEET-UG 2025 scorecard to impress his family. The case has exposed a growing network of online frauds offering fake academic documents for money.
According to a complaint filed by the boy’s father at the Udupi Cyber Economic and Narcotic Crime Station, the teen came across a YouTube channel called ‘Editing Master’ while preparing for NEET. The channel claimed to forge marksheets from NEET, CBSE, and JEE, and advertised WhatsApp contact numbers for interested students.
The boy reached out to one of the numbers, where a person identifying as Vishnu Kumar responded. Over a few days in April, the teen transferred ₹17,000 via UPI, following which he received a forged scorecard and tampered OMR sheet via WhatsApp on June 16. It falsely reflected a score of 646 and AIR 107.
Pleased with what seemed like success, the boy shared the fake result with his family, even forwarding it to a local newspaper. However, suspicions grew when the achievement didn’t receive any media coverage.
Upon verification through the National Testing Agency (NTA) website, the boy’s father discovered the actual score was only 65, with an all-India rank of 17,62,258.
Authorities have launched a broader investigation into digital academic fraud rings, particularly those operating via social media platforms and messaging apps.