Identity theft scandal hits China’s varsity entrance examination

*280 People involved in stealing identities of students sitting Chinese exam ‘gaokao’

Web Editor | ConsumerConnect

Stories of how an identity theft scandal robbed hundreds of previous candidates of their dreams have set social media blazing, following the recent rigorous university entrance exam which millions of Chinese students sat July 2020.

Identity theft has been described as the “theft of personal information such as somebody’s credit card details.”

Agency report indicates that officials in the eastern province of Shandong said a two-year investigation had found more than 280 people involved in stealing the identities of students sitting the “gaokao”.

Gaokao is typically the most stressful point of a student’s life in which a high score can drastically improve the future prospects of poor students in rural areas, report said.

The announcement prompted public outcry and Chinese lawmakers to vow a crackdown on corruption in the sector.

China’s top universities rely heavily on a high gaokao score for admissions, increasing the pressure on students to make good grades.

Nearly 11 million candidates sat this year’s exam, which had been delayed for a month due to the Coronavirus epidemic in the Asian country.

While fraud is a persistent problem in the country of 1.4 billion people where competition for the relatively few places in the top universities is fierce, the scale of the Shandong scandal has reportedly left many shocked.

Most of the cases pre-dated 2006 and officials blamed poor ID verification methods at the time for the failure to detect the cheating.

Forty-six people have been punished, the Shandong government said without providing details, according to the report.