Scammers on social media are charging students hundreds of pounds for fake exam papers that they claim to be GCSE and A-level exam papers that have been leaked.
The idea that papers might be for sale was "the most talked about hype" of exam season, according to a GCSE student who was quoted £500 for a paper on Instagram.
Exam boards stated that the leakage of genuine papers is extremely uncommon.
They did, nonetheless, add that fraudsters were charging between £7.50 and £4,000 for each paper, and that scams were becoming more widespread.
According to Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, fraudulent activity is against their rules, and users should report any such accounts they find.
Students who cheat may be prohibited from taking exams, the exam regulator Ofqual warned.
Under the condition of anonymity, Jade—not her real name—spoke to BBC News.
The 15-year-old first discovered accounts on TikTok purporting to sell GCSE exam papers.
The seller's Instagram account should be contacted, she was instructed in a conversation with one of the accounts.
I was surprised by the outrageous prices, Jade said.
The typical offer from various accounts for one exam paper was "anywhere north of £500 for a paper. ".
Jade claimed that she had not purchased the exam paper but that she knew students who had paid up to £900.
Another student admitted to paying £60 last year for a GCSE math exam using a social media account, according to BBC News.
However, when the account blocked them and made no attempts to send anything, they felt "hurt and annoyed.".
This year, according to Jade, some students were in a panic because there will be less support for students taking exams in England in 2023 than there has been for other year groups since the pandemic.
The people who make purchases from these accounts, she claimed, are your most desperate students.
These accounts actually do their work very deftly and covertly, capitalizing on this weakness.
You wouldn't find a single student this entire year who hasn't heard of these accounts, she said. There are them all over. ".
Under the guise of a GCSE student, BBC News contacted two different Instagram accounts that purported to sell exam papers.
An AQA geography paper was quoted at £120, and an English language paper at £150. A single exam paper was also reported to cost £150 in another account.
Both accounts requested payment via the payment app Cash App.
The scammer requested payment in the form of a gift card for a High Street retailer because Cash App repeatedly blocked our £150 transaction.
Our messages were ignored after paying the agreed-upon fee, and no paper was sent to us. Before BBC News had a chance to report the scammer to Instagram, the scammer's social media account was then deleted.
A representative for Meta, the company that owns Instagram, said that selling future exam papers or answer keys was not permitted and that the platform would remove any such content.
According to Bill Hewison, an AQA case analyst, many people tried to trick students by using altered pictures of prior exams and changing the date and text on the front cover.
"We saw an account a few weeks ago that claimed to sell one of our exams for £7.50," he said.
"Right at the other end of the scale, thousands of pounds — two, three, four thousand pounds — are quoted. ".
Exam board AQA gave BBC News exclusive access to observe how its teams fight academic misconduct attempt to close down the fraudulent accounts.
Although they do not know who is behind the accounts, they have searched social media for anyone claiming to sell papers to students both before and during exam season.
Exam boards can't delete the accounts, so they instead report them to social media sites, frequently using copyright as a pretext to escalate the complaint.
Snapchat advised users to report suspicious activity so that appropriate action can be taken, while a spokesperson for TikTok stated that any accounts "promoting fraud or scams" are removed.
Following the sharing of a portion of an A-level math exam paper on social media the day before the exam in 2019, the exam board Edexcel issued an apology.
However, genuine leaks are uncommon, and fake accounts on social media are becoming a bigger issue.
"On Tuesday, we will find five accounts if we conduct a search. Wednesday's search will turn up 10 accounts, according to Mr. Hewison.
They'll just make another account if you get one, they say. ".
CEO of the Joint Council for Qualifications Margaret Farragher compared it to a game of "digital whack-a-mole.".
Another one "opens up as soon as they try to close down one of these fake accounts," she continued.
Jo Saxton, the chief regulator for Ofqual, advised students not to rely on "fraudsters on the internet" before exams.
"You run the risk of not only losing money, but also really serious consequences for you," she said.
