On this page
Picture a call a few days after results. A polite voice says they can 'arrange' a seat in a government medical college or an NIT, as long as you pay part of the fee today. If your child's rank is borderline, that offer can feel like relief.
It is not. Central counselling runs on published rules with no side door for money, and the Medical Counselling Committee has warned candidates in writing about fake agents.
How does official counselling actually allot a seat?
For IITs, IISc, NITs, IIITs and other government-funded technical institutes, seats are allotted by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority under its JoSAA 2026 business rules. The rules say a seat goes to a candidate's highest possible choice based on their category, their position in the rank list, the order of preference they filled, the seats available in the quotas they are eligible for, and the other published business rules.
The same document says the entire process is online and computer operated, and that no exceptions are possible. It also says that qualifying in JEE does not by itself guarantee admission, and that candidates must register on the official JoSAA portal to get a seat at all.
Medical counselling has no side door either. In a notice dated 14 October 2023, issued about a fake postgraduate 'nominated quota' form, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) said it does not allot seats on a nomination basis and issues no letters to successful candidates. Candidates download their provisional allotment letter from the MCC website and report to the allotted college.
So an agent has nothing to sell. Your rank and your choices decide the outcome; a payment to a stranger does not enter the calculation.
Is it safe to pay an agent who guarantees a seat?
No. In an advisory dated 13 October 2026, the MCC said it hosts no website other than www.mcc.nic.in, told candidates to beware of fake websites and agents, and asked that any fraudulent website or agent be reported to it immediately. Its 2023 notice went further: do all counselling steps on the website yourself instead of hiring agents, and never share your counselling password with anyone.
A paid 'guarantee' can also end at an institution that is not a university at all. The University Grants Commission keeps a list of fake universities, which named 32 institutions as of February 2026. Our guide on how to check if a university is fake in India walks through that check.
What are the red flags in a seat-guarantee agent?
Any one of these is a reason to stop the conversation:
The seat is 'confirmed' or 'guaranteed' before the official allotment result is out.
They ask for your counselling login, password or OTP.
An 'allotment letter' arrives by email or WhatsApp instead of from your own login on the official portal.
They talk about a secret, nominated or ministry quota. The fake form in MCC's 2023 notice claimed exactly that: seats on nomination by paying a fee.
The email address only looks official. The same notice named fake addresses such as one ending in mohfw-gov.co.in.
They want cash or a payment to a personal UPI ID, today, with no receipt.
For more patterns, see how to spot fake admission agents and verify a seat offer.
What should you check before paying anyone?
Work through these five checks, in order, before any money moves:
Name the counselling body: JoSAA for JEE seats at IITs, NITs and IIITs, MCC for all-India quota medical seats, your state's authority for state seats. Type its web address yourself.
Log in with your own credentials and confirm the allotment on that portal. If it is not there, it does not exist.
Check the institution against the UGC list and the regulator for the course.
Pay only through the payment step the official portal or the allotted institute shows you, after allotment.
Call the institute's admission office on the number printed on its official website, not the number the agent gives you.
What do you say when the agent calls?
Keep it short: 'Thank you, but we are only using official counselling. If this quota is real, please send me the official notice and the counselling body's web address.' Then end the call.
If you have already paid, act quickly. Call the national cybercrime helpline 1930, which the Ministry of Home Affairs says was set up to help people lodge online cyber complaints, and file a report on cybercrime.gov.in. MCC's 2023 notice also asks candidates to report the agent to MCC and to file an FIR.
If the allotment did not go your child's way and they plan to prepare again, Fermi's AI tutor can work out what they already know and build a plan for each session, so the next attempt starts from a clear next step rather than a stranger's promise.
New to the process? Start with JoSAA counselling for parents: rounds, choices and documents.
![Augmented matrix [A | I] for the worked example row-reduced to [I | A inverse]](https://news.fermi.ai/media/images/2026/10/augmented-matrix-a-i-for-the-worked-example-row-reduced-to-i-88df69bc-1600x900.webp)
