A Chinese student at Arizona State University was arrested for finding someone to take the exam for him and will face charges of "felonious conspiracy"

A Chinese student at Arizona State University was arrested for finding someone to take the exam for him and will face charges of "felony conspiracy" Recently, an Arizona State University student from China was charged...

According to reports, the 21-year-old female college student named Xiaomeng Cheng (transliteration) was arrested by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this month. Also arrested were three Chinese students from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security accused Cheng Xiaomeng of cheating to pass the TOEFL exam after failing the English test three times. Cheng is an accounting student at the W.P. Carey School of Business at the University of Arizona. She was accused of paying a Chinese student named Yue Wang $1,000 to take the exam for her. It is reported that Wang studied at Hult International Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The lawsuit also says the practice was discovered on another student. The examiners discovered that a person named YY was taking the exam for other students. YY told investigators that Wang Yue found him and paid him $900 to be the "shooter." It is reported that Wang Yue found YY to take the exam for her because she was once arrested for being involved in fraudulent exams.

Wang told investigators that at least two other people hired her to pass the exam. The two are Shikun Zhang, a 24-year-old student at Northeastern University, and Leyi Huang, a 21-year-old student at Pennsylvania State University. Records show that Zhang and Huang each paid Wang US$3,000. The schools they applied to required minimum TOEFL scores of 92 and 80 respectively.

The United States imposes severe penalties on taking exams for others. Sky-high fines and prison sentences

In fact, this is not the first case in which a Chinese student has been investigated by U.S. officials for cheating on exams.

Just at the beginning of this month, four Chinese citizens were arrested by the US federal police on suspicion of hiring "gunmen" to cheat on the TOEFL exam. The four men face charges of "conspiring to defraud the United States." Once convicted, the four people will be sentenced to up to five years in prison, three years of residential surveillance and a fine of US$250,000. They will also be deported to the country after their sentences.

In April 2016, a Chinese student studying in America named Yue Zou (transliteration) asked two other Chinese women to pretend to be herself to take the college admission exam in order to attend Virginia Tech University. Zou Yue was later sentenced to six months of home confinement by the local court and deported to the country.

In the past two years, there have been frequent incidents of Chinese students looking for someone to take the TOEFL and other English proficiency exams on their behalf

In 2015, there was also a vicious incident in which Chinese citizens conspired to take the exam for themselves in the United States. The 15 Chinese citizens who were indicted were suspected of using fake passports and other methods to enter the examination room and help others obtain scores for TOEFL, SAT, GRE and other examinations. Some people used false scores to apply for American universities. According to the indictment at the time, between 2011 and 2015, 15 defendants conspired to deceive the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the College Board by taking "substitute exams" to obtain admission to U.S. universities or graduate schools. Most of the test-taking incidents involved in this case occurred in the Western District of Pennsylvania.

At that time, the federal prosecutor in Pennsylvania launched a total of 35 charges against 15 defendants, including conspiracy, forgery of foreign passports, postal fraud and wire fraud, including 4 federal felonies. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; the postal fraud and wire fraud charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; the forgery of foreign passports carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

It can be seen that the penalties for paid substitute exams in the United States are very serious, and there are no more than three consequences: jail, fines and deportation.

Western countries have “zero tolerance” for academic fraud

In recent years, as the craze for Chinese people to study abroad has heated up, a "gray area" has emerged in the entrance test process for applying to foreign colleges and universities. Some Chinese students who are eager to go abroad can only obtain "admission tickets" to foreign colleges and universities through fraud due to their lack of language proficiency and academic background. Therefore, some intermediaries take advantage of this mentality of students, act as an accomplice of fraud, and form a complete industrial chain. Some agents can use advanced computer technology to forge almost real passports and let the "shooters" take TOEFL, GRE, SAT and other American university and graduate entrance tests.

Some people may say that the penalties for taking exams for others in the United States are too severe. The most serious consequences are cancellation of exam qualifications and deportation to the country. Why should it be elevated to criminal liability or even jail time? This seems to be very different from the way such incidents are handled in China. In fact, throughout North America, the penalties for exam fraud have always been very severe, but they are both cheating, but their nature is different. Individual cheating such as "cheating" is generally regarded as personal misconduct and is usually only punished by the school. However, if you take the exam for a fee or bribe the examiner, you will definitely be held criminally responsible.

Western countries attach great importance to academic integrity and have zero tolerance for cheating in exams

The reason for this is that, first, Western society attaches great importance to the word integrity. Integrity is not only a moral constraint, but also subject to legal supervision. In the United States, schools attach great importance to students' academic integrity and often adopt a "zero tolerance" attitude towards academic fraud. Second, hiring someone to take the exam for you violates U.S. immigration laws and undermines the U.S. immigration system, because the person involved is using fraudulent means to obtain false scores in order to defraud student visas issued by the U.S. embassy and consulates. U.S. immigration law stipulates that those who obtain a U.S. F-1 student visa through fraudulent means will not be allowed to re-enter the United States for life after leaving the country, unless there are corresponding exemptions.

As for the forgery of passports by intermediaries, it is a federal felony. According to U.S. law, the crime of forging a foreign passport is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine of US$250,000.

Not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom, the penalties for taking exams for others are also very severe. Under British law, taking exams on behalf of someone is a crime of fraud, and using a fake passport is also a serious criminal offence. Once prosecuted, they will be sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment depending on the severity of the case, and a criminal record will be kept. If the case is less serious, a social service order will be implemented. For example, in 2010, the media exposed that a Chinese international student at the University of Warwick in the UK was caught taking an English exam for someone else and was sentenced to six months in prison. Previously, Chinese students were also suspected of taking the English test for the entrance to the University of Warwick and were sentenced to 5 months and 6 months in prison respectively. In 2012, a top Chinese student studying at the University of Cambridge in the UK was sentenced to one year in prison for holding a forged passport to take the English test for illegal immigrants.