The worst thing, US immigration is running one of the scams and assuming everyone that went for it was aware it was a fake university.
All it takes is a less than perfect command of English and I'm pretty sure a good few of the arrested people are likely to be actually innocent.
That doesn't excuse those knowingly trying to enter another country illegally, but it hardly excuses US immigration's nasty trick either.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47106199
Basically, watch out for visa scams.