The government's advise comes close on the heels of the UGC identifying 21 such bodies as "fake universities".
HRD Minister Arjun Singh issued an appeal asking students entering the portals of higher education to satisfy themselves that their institutions are recognised under the relevant laws and are of quality and repute.
"In particular, you should not merely go by the advertisements issued in the media by higher educational institutions, but satisfy yourselves by all counts in respect of quality and statutory recognition," Singh said in the appeal.
All statutory authorities have been asked to keep an alert eye on misleading advertisements in the media so as to ensure that the veracity of any "tall claims", he said.
Singh also urged the media to refuse to carry bogus and baseless advertisements intended to defraud unsuspecting parents and students, "even it means loss of advertisement revenues so that the media does not become a party to attempts by the unscrupulous to trifle with the future of our younger generation".
The University Grants Commission (UGC) had recently come out with a state-wise list of fake universities.
The bodies include as many as seven in the national capital including Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM). Uttar Pradesh with eight such institutes has the dubious distinction of having the largest such universities.
They include one each in Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
