Unethical tutoring agencies have been using the names of well-known universities to sell their services, according to a report in Nanfang Daily.

Parents prefer to hire students of renowned schools or teacher's universities to tutor their children.

But many have complained that the "university student tutors" contracted through these agencies rarely match expectations.

"They are most likely not our students," said the director of one university's part-time job centre for students.

But this kind of fraud is difficult to combat because the agencies often operate via phone only and do not list addresses.

The best way to check whether an agency's claim is genuine is by calling the named university's switchboard.

And fliers advertising "joint tutoring service" with several universities should be thrown away because to date no university has entered into such a partnership, he said.

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