GMAT Cheating Ring Busted In India - 6 Arrested + Russian Hackers

I believe the Russian hackers and those guys were working in the syndicate. Russian software is said to be undetectable so the group was working in sync. Solving exams on students behalf and earning money.

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Looks like they have been doing it for 3 years!


Found more here:
https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/ ... delhi-cops

In a strategic operation spread over ten days across Mumbai, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan the special cell of the Delhi police has arrested six persons including hackers, solvers, trainers and coaching institute owners allegedly involved in hacking into and manipulating the results of reputed online examinations including the GMAT, JEE and so on. Investigation has revealed that the group has been instrumental in getting 18 candidates to clear the GMAT and around 500 candidates in other exams for about three years. Three of the six persons arrested are from Mumbai and have played a key role in the racket, police said.

Those arrested have been identified as A Dhunna, 39, a Mahim resident who runs a training firm engaged in offering training courses related to networking, his brother S Dhunna, 28, who is a BTech, H Shah, 42, a Kandivli resident who managed the payments for GMAT exam deals, K Goel, 39, a New Delhi resident who runs a training institute in networking courses, M Sharma, 35, Haryana resident and mechanical engineer who has been a GMAT prep tutor since 2015 and R Teotia, 33, also a Haryana resident. Sharma met Goel through Facebook and for quick money, agreed to attempt examinations through remote access in lieu of money, In 2017, Teotia set up a lab in partnership in Agra and started illegal activities such as online examination hacking.

Speaking about the operation, DCP Special Cell, KPS Malhotra said, information was received by police that there were some syndicates involved in unauthorised access of various competitive exams and were charging hefty amounts for getting candidates their desired scores in these reputed examinations online. These syndicates were advertising or claiming to have access to online examinations of GMAT, JEE, Cisco-Associate, Professional, Specialty, IBM-All Exams Comptia - All exams EC Council-CEH, CHFI and CCISO etc.

“The information was developed and the alleged persons (hackers) were contacted through a decoy and a deal for cracking the GMAT examination was struck with the syndicate members. They assured they would clear the examination in lieu of money. As a part of the deal, the examination was booked in the name of a decoy police officer and the examination fee was submitted and slot for examination was booked. Token money for the deal was also deposited in the bank account provided by the accused. On the day of the exam on December 26, the accused persons asked the decoy candidate to download software called ‘Ultraviewer’ and thereby gained remote access to the decoy candidate’s laptop. They also connected the candidate’s laptop to the solver, who had attempted the whole examination, evaded detection from the proctor and other security measures. The hacker got access to the laptop and disguised the remote access file as the system file. The decoy candidate got a total score of 780 out of 800, which is 97 percentile and can now get admission to top MBA colleges worldwide,” said Malhotra.

He added, “The technical analysis of the telecom and financial data led to the identification of the syndicate members, who were found to be based in Mumbai. On January 1, the Dhunna brothers and Shah were apprehended from Mahim. The mobile phones used for communicating and striking the deal with the decoy, the laptop used for managing the details of such aspirants and other incriminating evidence were recovered and seized. The same are being subjected to forensic examination. These three people were primarily involved in striking the deal with the decoy customer and then connecting the decoy customer with another module of syndicate, which gains access and solves the exam. Based on their interrogation, other suspects were apprehended. Teotia had revealed that he had been engaged in online examination hacking and solving for the past five years and he had been in touch with Russian hackers also, to hack the exams. He had visited Russia in 2018 and Russian hackers had also stayed at his place during the lockdown. Teotia was also wanted by the CBI and Haryana police.”

The hacking and solving process
(from The Print article)

This is possible for GMAT Online exam!

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Wow - they hacked the pupil movements!!!

This only gets awful.

Article: https://www.pressreader.com/india/hindu ... 9797928635

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I think the police personnel disguised himself/herself a candidate. I guess the cops were tipped off by some candidate.

“After the deal, the constable who posed as the candidate appeared for the exam on 26 December 2021 and scored 780 out of 800 in the GMAT exam, which is around 97 per cent. It is a very high score that can get through any top MBA college abroad,” the DCP said.

Source : https://theprint.in/india/how-gang-in-3-indian-states-solved-gmat-jee-armed-forces-exams-for-cash-with-russian-help/795968/

The incident of rigging the online exam is not new, a similar racket was busted in Oct'21.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/pune-news/man-arrested-by-pune-police-cyber-cell-for-rigging-online-gmat-exam-101634400367708.html

P.S - Social Media networks such as Facebook are filled such scamsters. I have been approached quite a few times . Did report the incidents to GMAC, they hardly seem to care

I agree about lack of action from the GMAC. I have known several people who have reported these incidents to them and concerns about cheating only to never hear anything back. 🤷‍♂️

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Perhaps this is the reason for the extended (and numerous) administrative reviews test takers have been reporting recently? Maybe GMAC/Examity are being extra careful.

Very true !

Attached a public document that I found regarding racket that was busted on Oct'21. The language isn't that interesting because of the legal jargons (gives an impression that I am reading a RC ). You can give it a read incase you wish to know regarding the sting operation and how the cops were informed about the online scam.

In the post above I believe there were some extra zeros to the number of test-takers.

Ethan Hunt could not be more proud of them

So much effort and time for scoring a high GMAT score in unlawful way ! Only if they had dedicated a part of this effort into actually studying for the GMAT, they could have done well (if not 780).

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Thank you so much for sharing! I will check it out right after a call - very interesting!!!

More details with prices available. Anyone can translate it into the USD?
How much is 780 these days? and i love that JEE is more expensive


Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/delhi/arti ... ted/846782


They did?

JEE is the SAT of India . The exam is used for undergraduate courses into premium engineering institutes.

Here are some approximated values for the INR to USD conversion -

10 lakhs (INR 1M) = USD approx. 13k
8 lakhs (INR 0.8M) = USD approx. 11k

6 lakhs (INR 0.6M) = USD approx. 8k
8 lakhs (INR 0.8M) = USD approx. 11k

The amounts are huge even in INR. Pretty expensive deal

Some scamsters even offer a score of 780 for under USD 1000 .. cheap huh !

Apparently they want the candidate to get lured with small amount, take the test and then fall into a never ending trap of blackmail and extortion of money

I know someone who went from 560 on Official mocks to 760 in under 9 days . and got an admit from ISB..
pretty sus. when I confronted them about this (GMATOCEAN) I was blocked ( on LinkedIn ) and got no reply on GC from them

More details have been published!


Interesting that they would charge 300K and only 25K would go to the guy solving the test


How they did it:
On the day of the exam on December 26, the accused persons asked the decoy candidate to download software called ‘Ultraviewer’ and thereby gained remote access to the decoy candidate’s laptop. They also connected the candidate’s laptop to the solver, who had attempted the whole examination, evaded detection from the proctor and other security measures. The hacker got access to the laptop and disguised the remote access file as the system file. The decoy candidate got a total score of 780 out of 800, which is 97 percentile and can now get admission to top MBA colleges worldwide,” said a police officer.

https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/g ... on-darknet

Rest assured, the people who took such services will end up in the place they deserve.
GMAT is working with multiple reviews for every possible GMAT Online Test and delaying the official scores. (I got after 46 days)

Plus, once the main guy is arrested, Indian police will surely use third-degree treatment to generate names and other info of candidates who use the services. Remember, GMAT can cancel the score any time during the 5 year validity period. For someone who's in B-School with a fake score, it'll mean admissions cancellation, visa cancellation, and shame.
If not, then at least the Almighty is watching.