With private tutoring emerged as an ideal occupation for students seeking self-reliance, the fraudulent tuition providers have taken it as a lucrative business.

These tuition providers attract the tuition-seeker students through newspaper advertisements with attractive monthly payments along with assurance of tuition jobs.

However, after taking money from them in the name of registration most of these tuition providers fail to arrange tuition job for the registered tutors.

Tanzil Zaman, an honours student from Jagannath University, expectantly contacted one of these agencies for tuition opportunities. He was asked to pay Tk 250 to register himself as a member of the tuition media. After the registration process was over, the agency officials told Zaman that they would call him back within a week.

"They made me pay the registration fee and told me that they would contact me within a week. But two months have passed and I have not got any tuition," said Zaman.

"I tried to contact them several times in the last few weeks but they told me that they are yet to find any tuition job for me," said a frustrated Zaman.

MS Subed, a BBA student from Dhaka University, is another victim. "I went to a tuition provider after seeing a newspaper advertisement. It has been six months since then and they have failed to provide me with any private tuition job," he said.

While most of these agencies tend to collect money in the name of membership or registration, others claim half the tuition salary from the tutor for the first six months or so.

Some fraudulent tuition agencies take a fee of Tk 100-300 from the aspiring private tutors only to provide them with false tuition addresses before vanishing in the air.

Most of these agencies do not have any permanent office address. Inquiries revealed that these agencies do not stay in the same office for more than six months. Even the contact numbers provided in the advertisements tend to go offline in a matter of weeks.

A number of these tuition media have spawned in Nilkhet, Kataban, Fakirerpul, Elephant Road, Malibagh, Banani, Farmgate, Purana Paltan and other places throughout the city.

"I registered myself with a tuition agency expecting tuition opportunities. Although they assured me that I would have my tuition within a few days, they never called me back. Few weeks later when I went to their office, I found it closed. Nobody was there," said Mohammad Shah Alam, a student of Dhaka University.

Following tips from the tuition seekers who claimed to have been conned by such a tuition agency, this correspondent tried to contact the tuition provider only to find the designated office at Banani under lock and key.

"Although everyone knows that these tuition providers are nothing but frauds, students still consult them out of compulsion with some hope for tuition opportunities," said Niamul Hossain, a student of Jahangirnagar University.

According to sources in the Ministry of Education, no relevant policies exist to regulate such tuition agencies. They do not need any kind of governmental registration.

"Running a coaching centre or a tuition media does not fall under any government policies. Anyone with relevant trade licence can operate such a business organisation," said an official of the Ministry of Education requesting anonymity.