Military school test takers caught trying to cheat with mobile phones

Forty-six young men preparing to take a military school entrance exam were caught trying to cheat using mobile phones taped to their bodies and hidden in their shoes and underwear, an army official said Monday.

The men, aged 18-24, were among nearly 30,000 who showed up Sunday morning at Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok to take the test to vie for 2,000 spots in the one-year military program.

Officials searched the students and discovered the phones after some shied away from guards with handheld metal detectors as they entered the testing rooms. “When they took off their shoes, we found the cell phones,” said Army Spokesman Col. Acra Tiprot. “We questioned them, and they admitted many of their friends were also inside, so we closed the rooms and checked their clothes and shoes.”

Army officials suspect the test-takers’ parents had foreknowledge of the plan and paid for the phones. “The parents wanted their children to pass the test, so they believed the people behind this,” he said.

The person tipping off the cheaters is “likely a kid who has a high IQ or is a good student, went in to take the test, remembered the test information and sent the answers by code,” Acra said.

The suspected cheaters met Saturday to learn how to read the codes they would receive by mobile phone, he said. ap

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