Twenty-seven Proxy Exam Takers Discovered in Seoul

At least 27 proxy exam students in Seoul were discovered on December 1 to have taken this year’s College Scholastic Ability Test.

The cyber-crime investigation unit of the Seoul District Police Force stated that “by closely examining the photos on the social security cards and application forms individually submitted by 6,832 students through the education centers in Seoul, a total of 27 students (11 boy and 16 girls) were found to have photos that did not match.”

The Incheon District Police Force also launched investigations, as B (22 years old, female), a student currently on a leave of absence from an anonymous private university in Seoul and who solicited a proxy exam through bribery, and the proxy exam taker L (20 years old, female), a sophomore from a well-known university in Seoul, confessed on the same day.

Fourteen District Police Forces including the Seoul team are comparing 28,000 applications forms with the respective photos, predicting that the proxy exam takers will number over 100 students.

A police source stated, “It takes two to plan such proxy exams, so the suspects will naturally be twice as many,” and added, “After we identify these people, we’ll look into their accounts and telephone details to see if any brokers are involved in the crimes.”

The police also requested a search warrant for the three telecommunications companies on the same day, anticipating that certain mobile phone text messages that comprise both words and numbers had been used for cheating purposes.

The cyber-crime investigation unit of the Seoul Police Force stated that through an analysis of 12,000 text messages from KTF, 21 students from 10 groups, including two students from a group in Masan, South Gyeongsang Province, were found to have cheated.

The findings yielded the facts that the number of students suspected of cheating by cell phone has risen to 103 from 31 groups, and the incidents are spread nationwide.

Kang Hee-rak, director of Investigations at the Police Force, stated that “we plan to resolve all doubts by analyzing all obtainable evidence through maximizing our resources and investigation techniques,” and added, “We plan to conclude investigations by December 6, in concurrence with the Scholastic Ability Test schedules, but if we find new evidence in the meanwhile, we have no choice but to extend the period of our investigations.”

needjung@donga.com