The police went undercover as cheaters on the college exam - so the network was stopped

In the spring of 2018, the police investigator turned out to be a stressed test writer, who quickly needed help with the college exam.

They contacted one of the cheating services under the pseudonym "Mr Stressad":

“ Hi, I have a little panic and need help before 14/4. I have not been able to plug in and am now willing to pay for a quick and easy solution to my problem! ”

Investigators searched the people in the network, intercepted their phones - and struck in the middle of the ongoing college exams on April 14, 2018.

Three people were arrested in a room in central Norrköping. A 23-year-old man, his dad, and another man. Later, the 23-year-old's big brother, a 26-year-old who worked as a test leader at a school nearby, was also arrested. There he would oversee the college exam the same day.

The revelation of the university examinations began in May 2016, when SVT was able to reveal an organized cheating in the examination rooms. With the help of small wireless earphones, cheaters received the correct answers directly in the ear, and got results that gave them the opportunity to enter Sweden's top courses.

Two months later, changes were introduced that made it criminal to cheat on the college exam. And today you can be fined or imprisoned if you break the rules.

To get to the cheat, the UHR, the University and University Council, shed a trap on one of the exams in the fall of 2016. The test questions were reversed so that the order of the answers would not be the same in all locations.

It caught some cheaters, but the networks and salespeople were there.

To access the brains behind the cheating, Prosecutor Catharina Linné suggested that the case should end up with the Eko Crime Authority, which investigates financial crime. She had seen SVT's disclosure and wanted to stop the cheating.

- I turned to the prosecutor and brought this up for discussion. To do something to stop the business itself.

Investigators at the Eko Crime Authority began by following up a tip from a man who suspected that his partner was part of one of the cheating networks. The woman had done the college exam several times and got 1.1 as the highest result - until the seventh time when she suddenly got 1.9 and entered the medical school.

The tip also showed that the woman collaborated with a 26-year-old man from Östergötland. And when investigators examined his activity online, they saw that he and his 23-year-old brother bought and sold goods between each other for a total of SEK 700,000.

The packages, which they sold on Blocket and Tradera, contained, according to the descriptions, silver and gold bars. When the postal agent opened one of the packages - which cost SEK 95,000 - it turned out to be a 200 gram chocolate cake.

After the suspected money laundering was discovered, the prosecutor initiated a preliminary investigation against the brothers. Björn Norgren at the Swedish Crime Agency reports that bank statements were used to map the brothers' activity:

- They had bought mobile phones to a very large extent. Hundreds of pieces or more.

An investigative group kept the suspects under surveillance. When they posted packages, the investigators recorded which recipients.

- We compared them with people who were registered to write the university exam during the spring term 2018 and it was very well agreed.

Police now went undercover and contacted the fake network to buy their service.

They placed SEK 89,000 in a storage box at Stockholm Central Station and monitored it. The 23-year-old came to the scene with his father - to collect the money.

Investigators intercepted the suspects' phones and decided to try to take the men to trial during the actual test day in April 2018. When the cheat was in full swing, police hit a local in Norrköping which served as a liaison center. There they found cell phones, a computer and an audio system.

The father, who was arrested inside the room, wore a cellphone with many pictures on the college exam. The pictures had been leaked to him from his son, who at the time was the test leader at a school next door.

The father has now been prosecuted for helping with the false affidavit and says in interrogation that he wanted to pose for his child - which he discovered was selling cheats online.

- I felt that he was really pressed so I thought I would stand up, he is my child. I can say that it was not a pleasant experience and it was nothing I had done about it.

The trial, which started on November 8 this year, has not yet ended. In addition to the people in the network, 23 people are accused of trying to cheat on the college exam.

According to Karin Röding, Director General of the University and Higher Education Council, it is difficult to answer how extensive the cheating is. The trial applies to one of the networks, but there are more.

- We hope that this trial will give at hand that more people will get rid of their educational places and that it will also seem daunting. Six people have already had to leave their prestige courses.

Can you guarantee that all cheaters are stopped?

- No, we can't do that. We do not have the right to visit the body who performs the test. The government has appointed an investigation to see if it can be possible, so there is a way forward to further address the cheating.

Assignment review report The university test cheat will be sent on SVT1 on Wednesday, November 21, 2018. The report can be seen on SVT Play.