An inept 14-member gang which tried to run an exam cheating scam, was caught red handed sending mobile phone messages to examinees.

On Tuesday, China Daily reported on a wave of "migrating examinees" who traveled from northeast China's Heilongjiang Province to Jilin, Jilin Province, to sit in the national self-study college entrance examination last weekend.

The exodus sparked suspicion of possible large-scale organized cheating.

Both offices responsible for the self-study examinations in the two provinces came under fire as the Ministry of Education ordered them to submit written reports.

The 14-member gang, including two college students, are all from Heilongjiang Province, according to a police statement.

Headed by Yu Huibo and Song Dezong, the group promised to send migrant examinees answers during the exam via text message.

Cheating students were charged about 200 yuan (US$25) for the service.

The two college students, Xia Mingkuan and Lu Haiming, sat in the exam hall and were supposed to send their answers to accomplices who would then forward them to the gang's clients.

However, the scam went sour when Xia was caught in the exam room as he tried to send his answers.

Other members of the gang were found in a nearby hotel from where they were supposed to forward answers to examinees.

Police also found a list of examinees who paid for the service.

However, because the gang never managed to send any messages, technically no cheating actually took place. As a result, police said, they were only able to give the gang a stern dressing down.

"We cannot legally punish them because there is no relevant criminal law, what happened is totally unprecedented," said Ji Kaiqing, from Jilin's Provincial Public Security Department.

"We can only advise the education department to give the two students involved some administrative punishments, such as stripping them of their status as students and ordering them not to take the exams again within three or five years," he added.

"Each year, it is like a cat and mouse game," said Sun Rongjiang, deputy director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Examination Recruitment Office.

"The cheats use more and more advanced methods, and we try our best to hunt them down," he said.

"Even if we do catch the 'mouse,' the punishment is too weak to deter them," said Sun.

A series of cheating scandals is also haunting Beijing's education department after local media widely reported cheating at self-study exam sites in the city's Daxing District.

Eight "gunmen," employed by the examinees to take their places in the exam, were detected at several exam sites in the district. Police said they are investigating the allegations.

(China Daily October 20, 2005)