BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's police has cracked several cases in which college candidates have been swindled out of enrollment money, the ministries of public security and education announced here Friday.

A gang of four were detained by local police in east China's Jiangxi Province. They started their scheme in May when they rented an apartment inside Nanchang University.

The gang counterfeited cachets with the name of the CISCO Networking Academy of Nanchang University and printed fake admission brochures and admission notices.

The grafters had defrauded over 130 students of more than 510,000 yuan (around 63,750 US dollars) before they were arrested. About 2,700 students in more than 10 provinces and municipalities had applied for the school and 1,600 fake admission notices had been sent out, the ministries said.

A similar fraud involving three suspects was cracked by Jiangxipolice. Two of the suspects have been detained and one is still on the run.

Several fraud cases involving fake enrollment information on the Internet were also uncovered by the two ministries.

The Ministry of Education cautioned college applicants to look out for five common forms of enrollment fraud, including tricking students into enrolling in non-existent schools and asking for bribes in the name of college principals.

Statistics from the ministry show that 9.52 million students applied to enter college this year, but only 2.6 million will be admitted - just one place for every four candidates.

The fierce competition has made students and their parents desperate for any chance to gain admission. Enditem