In the latest instance of online fakery, vendors on one of China’s largest e-commerce platforms sold forged volunteer certificates to students looking to enhance their resumés.

According to a report in Beijing Youth Daily on Thursday, which has since been deleted, individual sellers and companies were offering the fraudulent documents on Taobao and other, lesser-known online marketplaces for anywhere between 10 and 300 yuan ($1.50 to $44.50).

When net users entered the search term “volunteer certificates” on Taobao, they were directed to a seller’s account. The seller then linked them to a website that generated authentic-looking documents with the prospective buyer’s personal information filled in. Some vendors would also list buyers’ “experience” on Party-affiliated website Volunteer China, a general online resource for volunteer opportunities.

Volunteer China, in a statement sent to Sixth Tone that has since been published on the organization’s own website, said it is investigating the issue and denied media reports that its employees were involved in any illicit activities. “Volunteer China has never worked with any [third-party] organization or individual to provide services related to the purchase and sale of volunteer service hours or volunteer certificates,” it read.

By Friday afternoon, a search for “volunteer certificates” on Taobao displayed no results.

Sun Hanjie, Taobao’s senior public relations officer, told Sixth Tone that the company has “taken necessary measures” against all accounts selling fake volunteer certificates. He also warned that there may still be other sellers operating via other e-commerce websites.

In recent years, volunteering has been on the rise among Chinese youth, many of whom have come to believe that partaking in such activities plays a crucial role in university applications, credit scores, and scholarship assessments. This has, in turn, given some unscrupulous companies a chance to cash in on the trend.

Last week, a company in Hangzhou was investigated for duping hundreds of students into for-profit volunteer teaching. There have also been reports of misconduct involving charities — including the Red Cross — that have resulted in diminished public trust and tarnished images.

Following widespread online concern, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, along with three other government entities, in 2015 issued joint guidelines on standardizing volunteer service documentation to regulate volunteer services, promote volunteerism and career development, and ensure the authenticity of volunteering records.

But experts say academic institutions, too, should educate students about the ethics of volunteering to dissuade them from taking shortcuts.

“Some students might not even know the meaning of volunteering,” Zhou Zhijie, a lecturer at Beijing Jiaotong University, told Sixth Tone. “Volunteer experience might not be suitable for every major, so universities should also make that clear while assessing the students’ grades or future applications.”

Additional reporting: Wang Ying; editor: Colum Murphy.

(Header image: A student organization for environmental protection holds a promotional event in Wuhan, Hubei province, March 23, 2013. Yang Hongbin/VCG)