Six Chinese nationals and an American have been arrested for allegedly faking their identities in order to take the American College Testing (ACT) exams in Thailand on behalf of paid clients back in China.
The first group of suspects, including Chinese nationals Wang Jie, 27, Huang Li, 27, Lin Jia, 28, and Chen Juan, 33, and American national Yao Michael Li, 30, were seized on Friday at the ACT examination site at Mahidol University outside Bangkok, The Nation reported.
Police said they confessed to being paid anywhere from CNY10,000 to CNY20,000 (THB47,500-THB95,000 or US$1,448-US$2,900) each to take the exam for clients who need high scores to enroll in US universities.
The suspects were given fake passports by an agency in China, then posed as their clients to take the exam in Thailand.
Two more suspects – Chinese nationals He Liu, 28, and Huang Xiofan, 39 – were arrested on Saturday at the ACT examination site at NIST International School in Bangkok.
Thairath reported that the suspects were uncovered after the people monitoring the tests attempted to verify their identities by asking personal information such as birthdays and addresses, something police said the perpetrators had failed to commit to memory. (Editor: Are these really the kinds of people you want to entrust your college future to?)
Police have revoked all seven suspects’ visas and charged them with using forged passports.
