Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
28 Chinese caught cheating on Korean language test
By Lee Hyo-sik
A group of Chinese students have been caught cheating on Korean language proficiency exams held here by using tiny cameras and other high-tech devices, police said Monday.
Police arrested a 22-year-old Chinese national surnamed Ma and two other individuals, and booked 25 Chinese students studying at local universities for obstructing civil servants’ duty.
Ma and two other individuals allegedly took money from 19 Chinese students, totaling 6.6 million won, in return for providing them with answers to questions in the Korean Language Proficiency Test (KLPT) held at a university in Gwangju on Oct. 23.
The three scammers smuggled the “spy cam,” a small camera that can be embedded into clothes, from China.
They hired a 21-year-old Chinese student surnamed Han who is enrolled at a university in Seoul to wear the camera on his shirt and take an exam.
Through the camera Han was wearing, the scammers obtained answers and passed them to exam candidates through a wireless phone earpiece they wore.
Investigators plan to expand the probe into other international students who took previous language tests.
“It is the first time for us to catch such an organized cheating ring. Many Chinese students are desperate to get high scores on the Korean proficiency tests to graduate from school and land a job here. The criminals took advantage of their desperation,” a police officer said.
A day before the exam, Ma and his accomplices were found to have taught the students how to use the earpieces at a motel room near the test site.
He also said the scammers hired two Chinese Koreans enrolled in one of Seoul’s prestigious universities to take the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) on Sept. 18 for two Chinese students by forging their IDs.
“I am sure there are more systematic cheating cases concerning Korean language tests. We will look into past tests and examinees,” the officer said.
Police notified the National Institute for International Education which supervises TOPIK and a KLPT organizer about the scams, requesting them to invalidate the scores of those involved in the scheme.