3/17/2004 -- CertCities.com recently obtained a translation of a Taiwan Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) press release that sheds new light on the February arrest of four people for selling IT certification exam questions (i.e., braindumps) and setting up a proxy testing network where students in Taiwan, China and other countries would pay up to $1,800 to have others take their IT certification exams for them.

When the arrest was made last month, many in this industry -- including this reporter -- scrambled to find out which certification vendor (or vendors) had lodged the original criminal complaint against Test4U.net, TaipeiITtest.net and OPASScertification.net, the Web sites that made up the network.

-- advertisement (story continued below) --

As it turns out, no vendors were involved.

According to the translated release, dated Feb. 5, the investigation was spurred by individuals complaining directly to the police, as well as an officer from the 9th Investigation Brigade who came across the operation's Web sites. "While CIB was patrolling on the internet in July of 2003, it discovered that someone had set up a Web site for proxy test-taking and selling test-questions. In addition, CIB continuously received whistle-blowing information about illegal setups on the Internet [site] Test4U.net," the release says.

Following the discovery, 9th Investigation Brigade Commissioner Hou You-yi set up a special case unit to investigate, led by District Attorney Chen Yun-ru. "[Hou's] concern is...this type of action will damage the IT industry standard for hiring, destroy the college entrance exam in the education arena, devastate the fairness of acceptance standard for graduate schools, and obstruct the developments of Taiwan information profession certification verification standard," the release states.

More than a year and a half later, on Feb. 4, CIB went to Taoyuan, Taipei and Taichung to arrest the suspects, as named in an earlier China Post article (full names are not given in the release): Tung Pei-chang, 41; Hsu Ching-ping, 27; Hsiung Chih-yuan, 34; and "a man surnamed" Chang, 34.

During the arrests, police seized a variety of evidence, including five computers, "six Microsoft authenticated certifications [certificates], two Microsoft identification cards, one Microsoft certification badge, one pile of authenticated supplementary schooling contract papers," business paperwork, accounting books, phone cards, and certification transcripts, among other items.

The release details the suspected involvement of the four charged. CIB alleges that Tung obtained the questions from the test centers, and collaborated with the others to carry out the proxy-testing scheme, where candidates paid for others to take the tests for them using false identity papers. Tung and Hsu "contacted individuals in Mainland China, [asking] China's test center workers and/or professional instructors to take tests," the release states. Tung and Hsu also "watched for changes in test questions in North America test centers in order to obtain the newest test questions and provide the answers to these questions."

According to the release, Chang is the alleged owner of a Web site that recruited "paying members" to work with Tung. He also received payouts for all customers who purchased questions from Tung, CIB alleges.

CIB says Hsiung was charged for allegedly being the person responsible for negotiating with customers from foreign countries "such as Korea and Japan" on proxy test-taking services.

It appears that those charged operated for the most part in the open, including hiring advertising companies to pass out flyers to students and other prospective clients.

CIB says that during interviews after the arrests, the suspects stated that the proxy testing network had about 300 clients, each charged between NT $10,000 and NT $60,000 (U.S. $300 to $1,800), depending on the tests taken. The average price paid to proxy test takers was NT $10,000. CIB estimates the revenue of the entire operation to be around NT $10,000,000, with a profit margin of approximately 50 percent.

The CIB does not state how many proxy test takers the network employed, but did say that they reside in "Canada, Macao, China and Taiwan," stating that most are "students and employees of various technology-related companies." According to the press release, most of the proxy testing operations took place in mainland China, with one-third of the clients in Taiwan.

All four have been charged with fraud and copyright law violations, and are under the investigation of Taiwan Taipei District Court Prosecutorial Agency.

The release states that CIB is investigating those who performed as proxy test takers, asking them to explain their actions to the CIB. Details were not given about the process.

The release itself appears to be aimed at educating society at large about the issue. Throughout the release, the CIB offers strongly worded opinions about the existence of such services and those who use or condone them, as in the following excerpts:

"In order to strengthen the students' personal ability, teachers have asked students to test for certifications. Students are lazy and waste their money on proxy test-takers to obtain certification or transcript and defraud their teachers."

"Acquiring a certification verification is valuable to one's profession and it provides the person with a great advantage. Hence, some owners of agencies/companies will hire workers and supplement money for these employees to attend additional schooling and obtain various certifications. But CIB discovered that some employees ask the proxy test-takers to meet them at their jobs [implying that employers know about the use of the service]. This case clearly provide a wake up call to these bosses: It simply is not worth it!"

"In order to demonstrate the true worth of professional certification, organizations should do their best to change and prevent and maintain the value of computer information professional certification. Only through such action can the standard of professional certification be solidified and the number of the many opportunists from breaking the law to be reduced."

Experts in IT exam security aren't sure exactly what impact this arrest will have on other international braindump sites. David Foster, Ph.D., President of Caveon, a Utah-based company specializing in security consulting and services for IT certification programs, told CertCities.com that while this arrest may result in some sites curbing their activities, he cautions that "it may lead to smarter and better ways to hide the technology." He said that the industry needs to do more to protect the exams before they are released, as well as increase the use of monitoring tools that can detect fraudulent testing activity.

Jack Killorin, Thomson Prometric vice president of Global Security, said that while the arrests are an "exciting development, we still have a long way to go," citing the difficulties in prosecuting such cases overseas, where criminal and civil statutes can vary widely.

"That kind of [government] response will give us a model for future [prosecutions], " he continued. "But it doesn't, by itself, mean that other countries will pursue these cases."

Killorin said that even if the arrests don't lead to an immediate reduction in similar types of services, "It certainly sends a message to other operators of both proxy testing services and braindump sites that there's an environment for prosecution." -- Becky Nagel