Breaking News: Taiwan-Based Braindumpers Arrested
2/6/2004 -- The China Post is reporting today that four Taiwanese citizens have been arrested for selling IT certification exams questions through the Internet and for taking exams for other individuals.
According to the story, the four in custody -- Tung Pei-chang, 41; Hsu Ching-ping, 27; Hsiung Chih-yuan, 34; and "a man surnamed" Chang, 34 -- were arrested yesterday in various locations throughout Taiwan. Charges are fraud and copyright law.
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The China Post article said that the groups sold the questions through the Web sites Test4U.net, TaipeiITtest.net and OPASScertification.net since 2001. According to the report, the sites boasted that the questions they sold were taken directly from Pearson Vue and Prometric test centers in various countries worldwide. The sites are currently offline.
It also states that in May the group began charging candidates TND $10,000 (around U.S. $300) to take exams in their place, employing a network of proxy test-takers and providing the service for about 300 clients in Taiwan.
Both enterprises resulted in revenues of around TND $5,000,000 (approximately U.S. $150,000), prosecutors say.
The China Post says that authorities were notified about the sites in Sept. of last year, but did not say whom the complaint came from.
This is the first known arrest of an overseas provider of IT certification exam questions (a.k.a. braindumps). There have been two high-profile U.S. criminal investigations, including one arrest: Robert Keppel, who owned Cheet-Sheets.com, pled guilty to a felony charge of theft of trade secrets in early 2003 and was sentenced to a year in prison. In another high-profile case, Garry Neale, then-owner of TroyTec.com and Testkiller.com, had his assets seized in June 2002 as part of a criminal investigation based on a complaint filed by Microsoft. Neale has not been charged.
These two incidents virtually quashed the U.S. braindump market, but overseas providers flourished, taking advantage of disparities between U.S. copyright laws and those in other countries, as well as the difficulties in prosecuting non-U.S. providers. This case is the first visible sign that some progress has been made on the international front.
At the Association of Test Publisher's conference earlier this week, this reporter talked to several IT certification security experts who hinted that things may be changing shortly for international braindump providers, but none referred to specific cases. Jack Killorin, Prometric's vice president of Worldwide Security, did remark in an interview that the industry has been looking at using criminal charges other than theft of trade secrets -- such as fraud, conspiracy and falsifying documents -- to pursue such cases, a tactic that has been successfully applied in at least one criminal case involving a higher-education entrance exam. "Do I care if they're charged with violating trade secrets or fraud...? No," he said. "I only care that they're behind bars."
CertCities.com is working on finding out more about this case and will bring it to you shortly. The China Post article can be found here.  -Becky Nagel
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There are 64  user Comments for “Breaking News: Taiwan-Based Braindumpers Arrested”
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| 2/11/04: Phil says: |
IT certification is a big money maker for the tech corps. Braindump sites are just as guilty as crash courses that promise the certification and a job after a few week course. Do you think that by taking a MCSE and CCNA combo course at some tech school that does meal plans and lodging is going to teach you everything you need to know? They are also geared towads your passing of the exams. They cant possibly teach you all real-world scenrios because only experience can teach that. However, MS or any other vendor is not going to go after those schools because they also make money from them. Microsoft will only go after test prep sources that they dont make money from. Explain something to me..for the CCNA,CNE or even the MCSE, there have been tons of questions on self test software and exam essentials that was word for word as it appeared on the actual exam. How is this different that using testking? Ive taken and have completed the CNE,MCNE,MCSE, MCSA and CCNA. I used the software, registered self test software and read over some braindumps. I work with this stuff every day and do well on the job. I think it is ok if you use braindumps in conjunction with the actual software and self test questions to give yourself the best chance of passing. If you rely on braindumps, you'l simply fail on the job. Its as simple as that. |
| 2/11/04: Arthur says: |
Looks what's happened with these braindumps. The IT market is now flooded with paper MCSE's and the decent folk have been squeezed. Hence why I disagree with them. I passed my CCNA without ever touching a router, purely by memorizing the book and doing the test questions that came with it over and over again. Braindumps are the same, just it's quicker. |
| 2/11/04: Anonymous says: |
Phil said it all, thanks Phil for making the point I wanted to make, and Arthur topped it up nicely. That's the point guys!! Besides the real experience, everything else is just part of that you call cheating, taking shortcut, "paper", only at different levels, that's all. So, which side are you, the experienced or memorize books/test prep software? Let alone the braindumps. So stop judging things if you're doing it yourself without realizing, judge yourself first. |
| 2/13/04: I'm on the HR side... says: |
Whatever gets me paid the most the fastest....nothing else in business matters! |
| 2/17/04: Hulk Hogan says: |
Why not buy a good Book such as sybex get your heads stuck into that for a while and playing with the stuff, then when you feel confident go get a testking and test yourself at home when you are hitting the pass rate take the exam. |
| 2/17/04: Rich Hill from Kansas City, MO, USA says: |
In my humble opinion, I think that the MCSE should become performance based. Look at the top certifications in other areas. Cisco's CCIE - written then super-hard lab. Junipers JNCIE - written then super-hard lab. Red Hat's RHCA & RHCE - lab. It only makes sense that Microsoft would follow this formula for making their certifications truly valuable. Perhaps, after you finish your course of exams, you become a "provisional" MCSE and have 1 year to take a hands-on lab. It really wouldn't be that difficult to set up, and I'm sure that there would be no shortage of providers willing to set up exam facilities. What about all the "paper" MCSE's out there. Give them 2 years to take the lab before revocation. Weed 'em all out, I say. |
| 2/19/04: Anonymous says: |
Oh really? What a plan man! We'll see if it'll ever work, if people will even bother to pay $1200 for the super-hard exam with average 3 attempts to pass, after having MCSE or CCNP in their hands. That's why Cisco never made CCxP to be a lab exam or otherwise their profit from Cert department will drop rock bottom. That's why they make CCIE as an option, not a requirement. Who would take CCNP or CCSP if they still have to pass the CCIE lab to be able to use the CCxx title or get the paper. Same goes for MCSE. Try make a policy where MCSEs are given 2 years to complete a $1200 super-hard exam to avoid revocation. See if Microsoft or Cisco can bear with the loss of revenue from their certs program. Don't you that they ever thought about it? Then why didn't they do it? That plan may work for you but if it doesn't work for the creators, why should they do it? It's all about the money, don't you get it? Oh no, because you're not the who gets all the money...Good luck with the plan man, try email it to Microsoft or Cisco and see what they'll do about it. |
| 2/24/04: jaarin96 from Texas says: |
We're arguing about braindumps and paper MCSE's while people in Asia buy exam questions from Asian braindumpers and get paper MCSE's , so that they can be ready when our outsourced jobs get there. Any thoughts? |
| 2/24/04: Anonymous says: |
How about the IT Pro who knows their stuff inside and out with umpteen years of experience, but who is not a good test taker? Braindumps offer thes poor souls the edge they need to stay employed. Microsoft has morons writing their test question pool - can we say ambiguous, open to interpretation, downright misleading, all under ridiculous time pressure? Take for example, the Microsoft Designing AD exam - who in their right mind is going to go into a consulting gig and design AD in an hour, based on the most incoherent stream of clues offered by the case studies? Wake up people!It's all a game and Microsoft and Self Test and Measure Up and Transcender are the ones laughing on the way to the bank. If Microsoft was really serious about certification and not about the cash register, they would institute performance based certification like the Cisco CCIE. Do they let doctors operate with out going through a hands on internship? So before you start talking about integrity and devalued certification, take a good look at reality. |
| 2/25/04: MadGerbil from Lansing, MI says: |
I use the cert tests as a study tool. For me they are a 'map' of what Microsoft feels is important about their product. I use transcender and study materials as a map to find out what I must understand to pass the test because I don't need the certification to get a job. It is too bad people have to run off and cheat like that, I'm in it for real knowledge, however, and not a piece of paper. |
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