Prison for S. Korean Man Who Sold English Test Answers
A man in South Korea has been sent to prison for three years for selling answers to English proficiency tests.
A 27-year-old with the surname Hong was found to have sold answers to 18 people 23 times between July 2021 and October 2022.
According to The Korea Herald, he made 80 million won — that's more than $57,500 — from selling answers to parts of TOEIC tests.
The Test of English for International Communication is used across South Korea, and getting good results is very important for students wanting to get into college and graduate from university.
The court in Seoul said that his actions had been planned in detail.
He began by posting an advert on social media. Hong had been working as a tutor, and he would sit for the tests himself.
During the break, he would leave the room to go to the bathroom where he had hidden his mobile phone.
He would then take photos of the answers, which he had written down, and send them to people who had paid him to help them cheat.
Some of those people had also hidden their phones in the bathroom. Others, who were not able to use their phones, asked to have the answers written on a piece of paper and left in the bathroom.
People had paid between 1.5 million and 5 million won — $1,000 to $3,600 — to get these answers.
All those who had cheated on the tests were given fines of up to 10 million won — $7,200 — by the court.
The TOEIC committee banned them from taking the test for five years.
The court also seized more than 76 million won — $55,000 — that Hong had made from the cheating.
