Thousands of matriculants who are currently writing their final exams will need to be on the lookout for bogus and unregistered colleges. These fake colleges will soon be promising desperate and unsuspecting matriculants all kinds of things as they recruit them. The department of higher education and training is warning students to ensure that they do due diligence and research on their institutions of choice after matric. For some students it is already too late. *Lerato Dube enrolled at what she thought was a genuine college earlier this year and she says she has started to see all the red flags that indicate that the institution may be unregistered or bogus. She says she is now scared to go back home this festive season as she is without any qualification. We spoke to **Lerato, who is using this pseudo name to protect her identity. We also spoke to Sam Zungu, Higher Education & Training department Deputy Director-General responsible for TVET colleges.