IT was Eric Wu’s last chance to take the College English Test-4 (CET-4). If he failed, he would not get his bachelor’s degree, despite holding a graduation diploma and despite excelling in his major, IT engineering.

He saw a posted flyer on campus that read: “Ghostwriter for CET-4/6, pass guaranteed ...” It listed a QQ account, an instant messaging service, for contact.

A ghostwriter or qiangshou (literally “gunman” 枪手) is the nickname for someone who takes tests for others.

Cheating and hiring test takers are forbidden, but still very common. The gunman and the employer, if they are both students, will very likely be expelled from the school if caught.

Since there’s no specific Chinese law or regulation on it, gunmen will not be put into jail unless they forge fake ID cards.

The service covers virtually every test in China, notably for certificates but not the National College Entrance Examination in June when identities are closely checked. There are test takers for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), exams for drivers’ licenses, professional accreditation and even China’s civil service exam.

Some people do it for friends, but most for money.

It’s also easy to find ghostwriters for theses, reports, lectures and speeches.

Around this time, thousands of university students in Shanghai are taking the Test for English Majors-4 (TEM-4).

Wu was desperate last year.

“I felt I had nothing to lose and this was my last opportunity so I contacted him right away,” says the graduate of a second-tier Shanghai university.

He described the experience to Shanghai Daily.

All went smoothly. He met the hired gun and agreed on a price of 2,000 yuan (US$329), half payable in advance and the balance when the results came out — if the test was passed. If the fake test taker failed, the money would be returned.

That’s standard procedure.

The gunman made a composite photo for a fake test ID card, based on the photos of both men.

If caught cheating, the student will be expelled and there will be a demerit forever on his or her personal record that follows a Chinese citizen everywhere. He/she is forbidden to retake the exam.

“It is quite common thing and thousands of people are getting away with it,” Wu comforted himself.

He did get away with it but the hired gun failed. His money was refunded but he missed the chance to put on a mortarboard.

University senior Nina (who declines to give her full name) almost became a qiangshou when a Turkish exchange student asked for her help last October on the Chinese language test for non-native speakers.

“I didn’t refuse at first because she was a friend of a friend,” says Nina, who is an ethnic Uygur.

She was asked to pretend to be the exchange student and take the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi).

“She asked me for help because she thought we looked alike, but we apparently don’t,” she tells Shanghai Daily.

Nina talked with the girl online and realized her Chinese were poor.

“She couldn’t understand slightly complex sentences so I always used very basic words and short sentences. She probably couldn’t pass the test by herself.”

The Turkish woman asked Nina out to discuss details and Nina struggled with herself but decided she couldn’t risk becoming a ringer.

“What if I was caught cheating? I can’t pay the price.”

“The reason there are so many ghostwriters on the market is that there are no such laws and regulations and the current punishment is not serious enough for both cheats, the test taker and the client,” says Zhang Haibo, a sociologist from Shanghai University.

Punishment of the cheating student by the school is inadequate and not a sufficient deterrent, he says, adding that there should be laws and regulations that carry punishment.

“Then fewer people would dare to be outlaws,” he says.

Alex, a Chinese-Brazilian exchange student (who also won’t give his real name) took his friends’ advice and looked for a ghostwriter on sales platform taobao.com. He need a senior thesis.

“I was fully occupied last semester hunting for a job and spent little time in Shanghai. Final seasons was too much,” he tells Shanghai Daily.

He was told that ghostwriters are usually highly educated and will repeatedly polish his report at not cost to achieve his desired score.

“Generally, they were professional and satisfactory. They didn’t understand my subject at first but rewrote my report for free and finished in three days,” he adds. He finally passed and got a quite good grade.

Alex says students are desperate when they turn to test takers and ghostwriters, and many are driven by job-hunt stress.

Now with TEM-4 coming up this weekend, the academic gunslinger business has witnessed a small rise before entering its big season in June for CET-6.

The advertising, mostly by agencies, is blatant and flyers are all over campuses. Most ads are from “educational institutions” and “professional service institutions.” Ads are torn down immediately, but online forums and websites can be easily searched. The price range is basically the same.

Prices for CET-4 and 6 range from 1,500 yuan to 2,500 yuan, while IELTS and TOFEL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) cost between 6,000 and 10,000 yuan. Makeup exams and other tests in universities usually charge 800 yuan. Professional tests for nursing, accounting, architecture or engineering range from 3,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan.

A Shanghai Daily reporter, claiming to be a prospective client, asked for a gunman for the Medium Level Accountant exam through a so-called educational institution called Baowei.

“You don’t have to worry much since we have the supervisors covered. Plus, the exam is not strict as you thought,” the agency told Shanghai Daily via QQ.

First, the client is asked to prepare the materials — recent photos, copies of the ID card and exam information including time, venue and other details. The agency can even sign clients up for the exam.

The minimum exam price is 6,000 yuan, plus 2,000 yuan if the agency signs up the candidate; it’s only 200 yuan if the client signs up by him/herself.

Then they find a similar-looking test taker in a couple of days and arrange a face-to-face interview. Since it’s hard to find a ringer for every client, agencies have to make false ID cards and test cards. They have equipment to reproduce the bar code on the test card, if needed.

According to service contacted by Shanghai Daily, they take (and pass) 20 accountant qualification exams each year in 7 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing in Jiangsu Province. All gunmen are professional accountants.

Some exams are more costly, such as the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and the qualification test for tax accountants — both more than 10,000 yuan. Prices also depend on the score requested by the client, high scores costing more.

High pay is the main motivation for test takers, many of them top students at elite universities.

Four Chinese ghostwriters who took GRE and TOFEL tests for others last year in Seoul, South Korea, were sentenced to 8 months to 1 year (all were given probation), according to news reports on March 5 this year. Two of them were said to be students at Peking and Tsinghua universities.

According to the previous reports, the four were experienced gunmen who had taken tests in more than 25 countries. They did TOFEL exams with high scores for both domestic and overseas Chinese students. They were even given accommodation and expenses for tests overseas. Each received at least 10,000 yuan per test.

Steven Gui, 30, works in a state-owned bank. He was caught as a gunman taking an advance math exam for a friend when he was a senior at university 6 years ago. He excelled in many subjects and took a dozen exams and professional tests.

“After you do it once for a friend, people just keep coming to you,” he recalls. “The test is usually easy, so I didn’t think too much before say yes.”

He claims he enjoyed it and did them for free, asking only for dinner.

Gui finally got his bachelor’s degree through making amends by some good services, but he’s unwilling to elaborate on what he has done. “There’s no undo key in life,” he says, “so all I can do is to take the punishment and take each decision more seriously in the future.”

(Long Siyao contributed to this story.)