TOEFL and GRE proxy test takers: the US prosecutions, and what happened to the students who paid

Are TOEFL and GRE proxy agents real?

Yes, and the clearest proof is in US federal court records. A proxy (prosecutors usually say "impostor" or "surrogate") is a stronger test taker who sits the exam under your name. How it works depends on where you sit:

• At a test centre, the proxy carries an identity document with your name and details and their own photograph. In every US case below, that document was a counterfeit Chinese passport.
• At home, the proxy takes over your computer through remote-access software, sits beside you out of the camera's view, or feeds answers to a phone. ETS listed remote access, proxy testing and phones in June 2022, and Rest of World found sitters working just out of shot.

What the agents never mention is that the TOEFL and GRE are run by ETS, a US organisation, and that both scores feed into US student visa files. That puts a proxy sitting inside federal law, with Homeland Security Investigations and the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service as the investigators. The cases below list one or both of them, and the Justice Department says ETS helped in the Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Washington investigations.

Case file: six US prosecutions, one method

On 28 May 2015 the US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania announced a 35-count indictment against 15 Chinese nationals for conspiracy, counterfeiting foreign passports, mail fraud and wire fraud. According to the indictment, between 2011 and 2015 the group had counterfeit Chinese passports made and sent to the United States so impostors could sit the TOEFL, GRE and SAT for the people who would use the scores. Most of the sittings were in western Pennsylvania. The release reminded readers that "an indictment is an accusation".

The office announced at least four sentencings in 2016. A paid sitter who took about three TOEFL tests with passports mailed from China got two years' probation and six months' home detention. A student who paid two people to sit the SAT and TOEFL for her, and used the scores to get into Virginia Tech and an F-1 visa, got six months' home detention. A facilitator who arranged sittings for two associates got one year's probation "with immediate deportation". The man the office described as having the lead role, Han Tong, got three years' probation in December 2016 and was turned over to immigration authorities.

On 4 May 2017 four Chinese nationals on F-1 visas were arrested in Massachusetts, Arizona and New Jersey. A business school student had sat the TOEFL in place of the other three, prosecutors said, and they used her scores to get into Northeastern University, Penn State Erie and Arizona State University. The sitter later admitted taking the test at least three times for registered candidates and receiving nearly $7,000. She pleaded guilty, was sentenced to time served and was ordered removed to China in September 2017.

Two of the buyers followed her. Each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, was sentenced to time served and was ordered removed. The Justice Department's account of one of them reads like every buyer's story: she "failed to achieve a high enough score" on earlier attempts, gave her passport and registration to a co-conspirator, and submitted that person's result as her own.

In November 2017 a Chinese national studying in Pennsylvania was charged after sitting the GRE in Boston for another student, presenting a counterfeit Chinese passport that held a counterfeit US visa. Prosecutors said she had sat the GRE or TOEFL under other people's names five times before. She pleaded guilty in January 2018 to misuse of a passport and passport fraud, and the release noted she would be subject to deportation after her sentence.

On 12 March 2019 federal agents arrested five people under a 26-count indictment; a sixth was believed to be in Taiwan. The indictment alleged that all six used counterfeit Chinese passports to impersonate 19 Chinese nationals at TOEFL centres around Los Angeles, and that the organiser paid for and registered 14 of them, then paid co-defendants about $400 per test through PayPal and Venmo. In October 2019 the organiser, Liu Cai, pleaded guilty to two counts of using a false passport. He admitted belonging to "a network of U.S. citizens and permanent residents that were paid to impersonate TOEFL examinees". All six pleaded guilty and were sentenced to probation, the Justice Department said in 2021.

On 24 September 2020 two New York residents pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use false, forged and counterfeited documents. According to the plea, they used counterfeit Chinese passports and national identity cards to impersonate at least 50 Chinese nationals at TOEFL centres, in DC and abroad.

The last case moves up the chain. In March 2021 prosecutors charged two owners of "educational consulting" companies in Alhambra and Arcadia. The companies, the indictment alleged, charged foreign students thousands of dollars for "guaranteed" admission leading to an F-1 visa, using bogus transcripts, ghostwritten essays and people hired to sit the TOEFL. The Justice Department linked them to the group of impostors in the 2019 case.

In October 2022 one owner, Yi Chen, was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison, fined $400,000 and ordered to forfeit $50,000. To be fair to the record: after a bench trial the judge convicted him of one count of visa fraud and one of aggravated identity theft, tied to an application that got a student into New York University, and acquitted him of a conspiracy count and 10 other visa fraud counts. His co-defendant was sentenced to time served.

What happened to the students who paid?

Read the cases from the buyer's chair and a pattern appears. The sitters and brokers mostly got probation. The buyers lost the thing they had paid for.

• They lost the place and the visa. Each Boston buyer had used the score to get into a named university. The two whose sentences were announced got time served and were "immediately removed" to China.
• They got a federal conviction. Conspiracy to defraud the United States carries up to five years in prison, as the 2017 Boston release states.
• They were found late. The Boston sitter was interviewed in May 2016 "working off a tip", and the charges came a year later. In one case the proxy sat the TOEFL in March 2016 and the buyer was sentenced in April 2018.

The sitters were often students on visas too. The Boston sitter was studying at a business school when she was arrested; the GRE sitter was studying in Pennsylvania. Both were removed or made subject to deportation, and a Pittsburgh facilitator's probation came "with immediate deportation". The few hundred to few thousand dollars they were paid did not cover that.

If the proxy is offered to you as a small favour between students, this is the paperwork that follows it. The same pattern ran through the UK in 2014, where buyers of proxy English tests lost visas in their thousands: see the TOEIC scandal.

Why a proxy score turns into an immigration case

Every US release above explains the chain in nearly the same words. To study in the US you need an F-1 visa. To get one you must be admitted by a school certified by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which issues a Form I-20. Many of those schools require a TOEFL score from applicants whose first language is not English. So a proxy TOEFL score is the first link in a federal immigration document.

That is why prosecutors charge visa fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States, and why the investigators are immigration and passport agencies. It is also why the consequence outlasts any sentence. US immigration law, 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(C)(i), makes inadmissible any person who, "by fraud or willfully misrepresenting a material fact", has sought or obtained a visa or admission. The provision sets no time limit, and waivers are discretionary.

ETS closes the loop from its side. Its TOEFL iBT Bulletin for 2026 to 2027 says ETS may provide information about a score cancellation "to law enforcement and the institutions you chose to receive your scores, including visa-granting agencies". The GRE Bulletin for the same year names "immigration departments" among the agencies ETS may refer cases to.

The money machine: who earned what

The court records show three layers, each paid differently.

1. The sitter. The Los Angeles organiser allegedly paid co-defendants about $400 per test. The Boston sitter received nearly $7,000 for three tests. Sitters were recruited from people already in the US, including students.
2. The broker. Brokers registered candidates, sourced counterfeit passports and paid the sitters. The Los Angeles organiser registered 14 people over one year, according to the indictment.
3. The "consultant". At the top, Chen's companies sold the whole package. Prosecutors wrote that he "made millions of dollars by faking every aspect of the college admissions process", and said he controlled seven bank accounts that received more than $15 million in deposits between 2016 and 2020.

The at-home market has its own price list. In December 2022 Rest of World reported on Chinese services selling help with remote TOEFL and GRE sittings. One company charged 12,000 yuan ($1,678) to make sure clients scored at least 85 out of 90 across three TOEFL sections, and about $4,000 for someone to sit an entire remote TOEFL or GRE. A student in Henan said she bargained a company down from 18,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan ($2,124) to send answers to her phone during an at-home TOEFL. One owner told the outlet his method was "10,000% undetectable".

Across all of it, the buyer carries the identity risk. Theirs is the only name on the score report.

At home is not safer: how ETS checks who is sitting the test

The pitch for at-home proxies is that nobody checks your face in person. ETS's own documents describe several layers aimed at exactly that.

• A live proctor. The TOEFL Bulletin says your "entire session will be recorded and monitored by a human proctor, and your photo will be taken". The GRE Bulletin says the at-home test "is monitored by a human proctor" and that your computer is scanned "for any software that may be used for an unfair advantage".
• Identity checks before and after. You may have to verify your identity with a mobile app at least 48 hours before an at-home TOEFL. ETS also warns that a proctor accepting your ID "does not guarantee that the ID you provided is valid or that your scores will be reported".
• Remote access is banned. Both tests require you to disable screen-sharing and remote-access software before the test; the GRE Bulletin names TeamViewer, Zoom and Apple Remote Desktop.
• Room scans and a second camera. You show the proctor a 360-degree view of the room, the door must be visible, and some candidates must set up a phone as a second camera.
• Your photo travels with the score. ETS's at-home requirements page says "your photo will be shared with institutions that receive your scores".
• At centres, ID checks may include fingerprinting and "biometric voice and photo identification".

ETS also cancels after the fact. In a June 2022 statement on test security, it reported a more than 200% increase in TOEFL and GRE score cancellations in its second year of at-home testing compared with the first, and said it had seen attempts using "remote access software, proxy testing, cellphones to send and receive messages". It said it cancels scores "even when they were already released to test takers and/or institutions". ETS's chief security officer told Rest of World later that year: "We know that they exist and we are catching them."

Sellers say the opposite, much as dump sites promise "actual exam questions" (see is ExamTopics legit). ETS's claim comes with a cancellation policy that binds you. The seller's comes with nothing.

What ETS's 2026 rules say happens if you are caught

The TOEFL iBT Information Bulletin for 2026 to 2027 lists "having or attempting to have someone else take the test or part of the test for you" as a violation. ETS reserves the right to cancel any score when, in its judgment, there is "substantial evidence that the score is invalid". It can also ban the test taker "from taking any future ETS test" and refer the matter to law enforcement. When it cancels a score already reported, it tells the recipients and may say why. Your fee is not refunded.

The GRE Bulletin, in effect from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, lets ETS cancel scores "whether or not it has already been reported" and adds detail. ETS may decline to score or cancel a test if your "photo or biometric samples from test day cannot be validated" or if it has evidence that you did not appear for the test. If anomalies show up after scores are reported, ETS "will also cancel your scores, ban you from taking any future ETS test and notify score recipients".

A ban from "any future ETS test" means the TOEFL and the GRE together, because both are ETS products. For a graduate applicant, that can close off two routes at once.

Outside the US: the same offer under different names

Searches for "toefl proxy agents in Hyderabad" are not new. In February 2015 The Hindu reported that Hyderabad police said they had busted a TOEFL impersonation racket and held 11 people at a centre in Secunderabad, where, police said, the operators had hired three people to sit the test for candidates. In August 2015 the same paper reported that police caught two men who had allegedly taken money from TOEFL candidates on the promise of "genuine papers" that were in fact compiled from websites. Both were police claims at the time of reporting, not convictions.

In June 2026 police in Anand, Gujarat, said they had found an alleged TOEFL and CELPIP centre with a hole in the wall and mirrored screens, so that a dummy candidate in a support room could sit the test, the Indian Express reported. One man was arrested and the alleged organisers were being sought. We cover that case in more detail in PTE proxy agents and guaranteed scores. None of these Indian cases has reached a verdict that we could find.

Eight tests to run on any offer before you pay

Each of these comes from a case above. If an offer fails one, walk away.

1. Does anyone but you produce the answers? A person in the room, a person on your screen, or answers on your phone are all proxy testing under ETS's rules.
2. Are you asked for your passport scan, photo or ETS login? In every US case, the buyer's identity details went to the broker. That is the step that makes the score yours in law.
3. Are you told to install software or keep a phone "for support"? Both Bulletins require remote-access software to be disabled. A seller who needs it running needs you to break the rules.
4. Is it sold as "undetectable"? ETS cancels after release, and the Boston buyers were caught a year or more after they sat.
5. Is a stranger offering to "guarantee" admission plus the score? Chen's companies sold "guaranteed" admission and supplied the test result, the transcripts and the essays. That ended in a federal prison sentence.
6. Did the offer find you? Rest of World reported that sellers contact students who post about their studies online.
7. Is the price several times the official fee? Compare it with the fee ETS lists for your country on its own site.
8. Are you sold "real" papers? The 2015 Hyderabad case involved papers copied from websites and sold as genuine.

Fake transcripts and diplomas follow the same playbook as fake scores: see diploma mills and fake certification bodies. For the domestic version of test fixing, with a paid sitter and bribed proctors, see Varsity Blues.

The honest route to the score you need

The two Boston buyers whose stories the record tells in detail had both sat the TOEFL before and fallen short. That is the real problem, and it is solvable: English test scores move with practice on the exact task types and timing.

Start with the score your university actually asks for, then pick the test. The TOEFL iBT guide covers the current format, which changed in January 2026, and the score scale. If your list of schools also accepts other tests, our comparisons of IELTS vs TOEFL and TOEFL vs Duolingo can save you a sitting. For graduate school, the GRE guide and GRE vs GMAT cover which test your programme wants.

Put your test date into the free study plan tool on this page. It works back from your date and your weekly hours and tells you whether you will be ready. If you want more structure, ExamTips Pro for the TOEFL adds a week by week plan, the task types that cost the most marks and practice material for a one-time fee. Nothing in it puts anyone else in your seat.