Police Seize Assets of TestKiller.com
7/10/2002 -- On June 6 San Antonio police seized assets of TestKiller Ltd., the company that runs the practice exam Web site TestKiller.com.
According to a police report filed with the Bexar County, Texas District Court on June 20, the raid was prompted by Microsoft, who alleged that the site was selling Microsoft certification exam questions.
In his affidavit, seizing police officer Daniel Flaharty, a detective in the Special Crimes Unit of the San Antonio Police Department, wrote that he was contacted by a representative from the anti-piracy office of Microsoft. The unnamed representative alleged to Flaharty that TestKiller Ltd. was selling Microsoft "trade secrets" in the form of questions and answers to Microsoft exams.
According to the report, Flaharty began an investigation based on Microsoft's complaint, which led to the June 6 seizure of $408,566.84 in cash as well as several phones, printers, computer equipment, software and other items from at least one location.
No charges have been filed in this investigation. Calls made to the Bexar County district attorney's office to determine whether the investigation was ongoing were not returned as of press time.
Garry L. Neale, one of Testkiller Ltd.'s owners, politely declined CertCities.com's request for an interview, referring all questions to his attorney, who is out of the country this week.
A spokesperson for Microsoft confirmed that the company was aware of the investigation but said he could not comment on it due to the legal nature of the story.
The Testkiller.com Web site has been offline since early June.
Neale is the former owner of Troy Technologies (TroyTec.com), which in December settled a civil copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit brought by certification vendor CompTIA (see "CompTIA v. TroyTec Settled; Company Pulls CompTIA-Related Products from Site, Denies Wrongdoing").
CertCities.com will continue to follow this story and bring you further updates as they develop.  -B.N.
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There are 254  user Comments for “Police Seize Assets of TestKiller.com”
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| 10/17/02: agnostic punk says: |
alright i have read some of these comments and have to say this...spending thousands of dollars for material come on...i wish they didn't get caught and to be honest hope the rest don't...i have studied hard and i have used testkiller to freshen up on the test...and to see if i new the material...there are way to many questions to say that anyone can memorize them unless someone has aphotographic memory but in that case they can look at anything and remember it...as far as microsoft is concerned...i see they don't want people just passing the tests...i mean either way they are getting money in there pockets right? or maybe they want people to keep failing and retaking so they can double the money...all microsoft is are a bunch of money hungry hypocrites...who don't care eitherway as long as the money goes too them |
| 10/24/02: Roger from San Anto says: |
blah blah blah bla to all this people the people that wanted troytech to be shut down are probably people that have no jobs because the people that use try tech do all i got to say that even if you are certified your skill are that ones that count i know alot of people that have CCNA MSCE A plus novell cne and they suck having a cert means SH%$ |
| 11/4/02: John says: |
The perspective of the employer is under-represented on this topic. I don't give a rip about certs. Can you install a network printer? Can you fix the email server? Can you get the DSL line up again? All that stuff matters. Skills count, not test scores. Certs were originally designed to weed out a wanna-be. Maybe MS doesn't play fair anymore with their certs, but it's because there are WAY too many cert-specific tools. You want a good job? Distinguish yourself with your IT skills and your interviewing skills. You need people skills, too. :-) |
| 11/27/02: BasicITOne says: |
John 11/04/02- Thanks for the post from a employers POV. It's a good point for everyone seeking to be paper certified - I was in an group interview (first time for this format) the other week with 9 others everyone in the group had to have had an MCSE with Exchange 5.5 as an elective. And the interviewer asked one question - "When the mta stops what will you do?" He was looking for one answer "Start it." only two people answered it correctly. The interviewer knew exactly what would weed out the POSERS and PAPER MCSEs. |
| 12/2/02: Adam from k.sa says: |
why they closed testkiller? this is amazing questions? and i dont have answer to it. reply to me |
| 12/4/02: Anonymous says: |
imho MS and the other vendors get what they deserve because they're too lazy to create multiple versions of the tests. i've bought copies of 3 "cheat" tests and was surprised that in each case they had the exact wording of every question. people wouldn't cheat if it wasn't so damned easy! if MS is going to keep the same 100 questions for 5 yrs, they shouldn't be surprised if people cheat. if MS is collecting $125 for each test but they can't be bothered to use even slight variations of the questions, or to have a larger pool to draw questions from. if the tests were conducted online thru a secure internet connection, MS could update the questions whenever one of them appeared on a cheat website. and if they had a pool of 1,000 questions to draw from, it would be more difficult to cheat than it would be to actually learn the material. in addition, it's not like i'm stealing from Mother Teresa here-- it's MICROSOFT |
| 12/18/02: Carlo from USA says: |
The big problem is more and more new sites are offering exam questions for any test you’d like, including Cisco, CIW, Novell, CompTIA and many others. There are also many (legal) sites such as Transcenders and Boson that sell 60%-90% exact exam questions without being investigated. The truth is that most today’s certifications have lost their credibility by employers and IT companies, and anyone could easily become certified in many IT certs in a very short time without having enough experience in the required field. Basically, most IT certifications have no future or don’t guarantee you a good job any more. I’m afraid that one day Microsoft and others would follow RedHat and Cisco CCIE certification route and ask you to make a real tough test in their labs… if you really want to become certified IT fellows! |
| 12/19/02: Anonymous says: |
Braindumps have not devalued certifications. Idiots in the field have devalued certification. MCSEs that don't know how to map a drive, etc... |
| 12/19/02: Lulu from Vancouver says: |
Let's assume if there were no companies such as Testkiller, Transcender, Cheet-sheets, etc at all; if there was no any braindump websit in the world; if there were only Microsoft courses and study guides; Microsoft would have to expect at least 50% (if not 90%) less MCSE's in the IT market. Consequently, Microsoft would lose the same percentage for their product sale in the market, since the MCSE's play such an important role in puchasing productions in their companies. That's one of the reasons why Microsoft would not be so stupid to try to kill all those testing companies and braindump websites. However, the tallest trees, such like Testkiller, will always be easily killed by wind. |
| 12/19/02: The Groove Drummer from Ventura, CA says: |
I am a Network Technician at a University in CA. I attend the Cisco Networking Academy and I'm using every resource I can get my hands on for preparing for the CCNA exam, Transcender, Testking, Sybex, Ciscopress, etc. The bottom line is actual hands-on experience with routers, switches and the Cisco IOS will earn your place in the IT industry. All of the other stuff is just material to get me the answers to pass the exam. A paper CCNA will not make it in the real world. OUT! |
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