Pan, a student at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, is one of about 30 students who have launched complaints with the Yangpu District Consumers' Association about the local branch of the Beijing-based education center during the past week.

Pan's courses were supposed to begin in March, but were repeatedly delayed, and his requests for a refund were rebuffed.

"When I asked for a refund, the center first said its accountant wasn't on duty. Later they told me to contact their Beijing headquarters directly," Pan said. "But the Beijing office claimed it didn't have a business relationship with the Shanghai center."

The consumers' association says the number of complaints is still growing and it can't say for sure how much money is involved as some students have taken their grievances to the municipal consumers' association or the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau,

"I estimate a large number of students have been cheated by the education center," said Fan Shenlan, secretary-general of the Yangpu association.

Beginning in February, the education center began placing flyers on local university campuses for its language courses, promising classes would be taught by senior professors from renowned universities in Beijing and Shanghai.

It also hired some students as agents on campus, offering them 25 yuan (US$3.03) for each student they recruit.

When students arrived for their first class at the end of March, they were told the course was postponed due to low enrollment. Students that asked for refunds were rebuffed, and the campus agents never received their recruitment rewards.

An investigation by the consumers' association suggests the center had engaged in a premeditated fraud.

"The local office on Xiangyin Road is already empty. Even the Beijing company has disappeared," Fan said.

(eastday.com May 15, 2003)