Here is IELTS' full statement in reply to an SBS story uncovering a business helping international students pass their English visa tests, by sending someone else to sit them.
This story on SBS Television is a further warning to all candidates to be wary of scams that risk their integrity and future by attempting to cheat in any way.
IELTS is aware of allegations that fake passports have been used for registration purposes at an IELTS test by imposters who were paid large sums of money to sit the test on behalf of another person.
IELTS is a high stakes English language proficiency test used by over 6000 organisations around the world including governments, education providers, professional associations and employers.
Each recognising organisation sets an IELTS score based upon their own requirements for English language proficiency. Individuals can sit an IELTS test at over 800 locations in 130 countries.
We take our responsibility to ensure fairness, accuracy and reliability of results seriously.
It is inevitable however, given the high stakes nature of the test that a minority of test takers will seek to obtain the results they require via fraudulent means.
This is not to say they are successful.
Indeed, the integrity of IELTS test results are safeguarded through a number of mechanisms applied across all three stages of the test, i.e., prior to the test, on test day and for an extended period following the test.
The SBS story implies that imposters have succeeded in gaining an IELTS result on behalf of someone else.
Attempts to cheat that may appear to be successful on test day are routinely identified by IELTS through a series of complex systems that operate following test day, designed to detect cheating.
IELTS works actively with government immigration authorities in all key destination countries to reduce the level of this activity to ensure that only genuine candidates receive an IELTS result.
In the experience of IELTS, the small percentage of test takers who resort to cheating via the use of imposters or other methods either fall victim to scammers who take their money and disappear without delivering on promises, or have their results cancelled by IELTS upon detection by posttest day security processes.
We recognise that test integrity is paramount to organisations that rely on IELTS results.
With more than 20 years experience, IELTS continually evolves security systems and procedures in order to ensure that multi-layered protocols address security risk across all stages of the test and organisations can fully trust IELTS test results.
