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April 19, 2014

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Arsenal of tricks used by exam frauds

EXAMS are all-important in China, often they can make or break a future. Pressure to succeed is enormous and there’s great incentive to pass, even by cheating.

Education authorities are aware of the problem and try to stop it with vigilance, new technology and often banning cell phones and various devices.

Cheats can either hire a ringer, known as a gunman, to take an exam, or get help in other ways from specialized agencies.

If a candidate doesn’t show up for an exam and a gunman takes it, a photo identity card must be forged. In the past, a fake could be spotted, but now technology combines the features of both the absent candidate and the test taker.

Photoshop enables cheats to create a new “real” ID. They search a database for images of suitable ringers who resemble the client and edit images into one that resembles both client and ringer.

They remove the chip from the original identity card and embed it in a new one so that the chip detector will still identify it. In this case, the image on the new identity card will confuse supervisors who otherwise might spot a fake.

In other cases, candidates attend the exam but copy the answers worked out by other person. Communicating is increasingly difficult because of strict controls. In the past, 2 people could register together for a test to get sequential seat numbers, then answers would be passed to the candidate.

Today cell phones are banned in many exams but they have been used.

Candidates used and still use costly devices that can be connected with their cell phones, such as miniature wireless earphones and watches or pens with pinhole scanning cameras. Candidates send images to a gunman usually located in a hotel. Answers were transmitted back to the cell phone.

Some agencies strongly recommend the latest advance — miniature wireless earphones because they are invisible and efficient. Writing down answers while listening is faster than checking a cellphone that can be spotted. Wireless earphones can be 6mm or less in diameter. They are said to cost at least 400 yuan (US$64).




 

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