Guangzhou police warned college students to guard against strangers posing as students from Beijing University after a number of students were swindled out of thousands of yuan recently, the New Express reported Wednesday.

At least three cases had been reported to police where swindlers posing as students from Beijing University, one of the most prestigious in China, had cheated Guangzhou students out of various sums of money, police said.

On Nov. 11 last year, a Guangzhou college student met three strangers who said they were from Beijing University. They told him they had become lost in Guangzhou while conducting research and could not find their teacher. They said they needed a sum of money urgently to fax "some important material" back to Beijing University.

The Guangzhou student loaned them 1,700 yuan (US$205) in cash and gave them his bankcard.

But the strangers never returned and the Guangzhou student later found additional 7,800 yuan missing from his bankcard account.

In the other two cases, two college students also fell victim to strangers who claimed to be students from Beijing University, losing at least 7,000 yuan each.

Beijing University was considered one of the top universities in China, and many Guangzhou college students, especially freshmen, admired students from the prestigious university and were too eager to make friends with them, police said.

Editor: Catherine