Cheet-Sheets.com Owner Pleads Guilty; May Face Jail Time
8/27/2002 -- Oregon resident Robert R. Keppel, owner of the now-defunct braindump Web sites Cheet-Sheets.com and CheetSheets.com, pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to a charge of theft of trade secrets, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1832(a)(2).
The charge resulted from allegations made by Microsoft that Keppel was selling questions and answers to Microsoft certification exams.
When he's sentenced on November 1, Keppel faces up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. He also forfeited a Lexus RX300, a 1997 Ferrari Spider and $56,000 in cash as part of a plea agreement. CertCities.com attempted to reach both Keppel and his attorney for comment, but did not receive a response before this story was posted online.
Assistant United States Attorney Annette Hayes, who prosecuted the case, said this is first application of the theft of trade secrets statute to procure a conviction within the realm of IT certification testing. In June, police in Bexar County, Texas seized the assets of TestKiller LTD and its owners citing the same felony charge, but criminal charges have not been filed in that case.
Previously, most "braindump" cases were pursued in civil court, citing copyright and trademark violations. "The [theft of trade secrets] statute is not that old... which is probably why there hasn't been many [criminal cases of this type]. But there's nothing unique about this case," said Hayes. "We picked this statute because it was the one that applied."
According to Microsoft, the case began when the company received allegations from customers that the content of Keen's CheetSheets contained live exam items. Microsoft made a criminal complaint to the Federal Bureau of Investigations during the summer of 2001, which turned the investigation over to its Computer Crimes Division.
In Sept. 2001, the FBI's Computer Crimes Division issued search warrants and seized the cash and cars listed above, as well as papers and other evidence. According to the government, this evidence showed that Keppel began selling the questions some time in 1999. He began buying exam questions from a source in Pakistan in January 2001, which he then incorporated into his test materials. (The government declined CertCities.com's request for the name of the Pakistan source.) Records from a NOVA credit card merchant account, opened by Keppel in July 2000, show that the business earned at least $753,633.03 while that account was active, the government said.
Hayes said that criminal charges were never filed in this case. When her office was given the case in late 2001, they initiated contact with Keppel, and eventually negotiated the guilty plea through Keppel's attorney. The government then filed a Statement of Information with the court on August 8, paving the way for Keppel to enter his plea on Friday.
Hayes told CertCities.com that her office will make sentencing recommendations in late October. According to Hayes, Keppel is currently out on "pre-trial" release.
"I think it's important to note that the government is pursuing these types of cases and we will continue to do so," said Hayes.
Word of the plea spread over the weekend after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published a short news story online.
"I was ecstatic when I heard the news," said Craig Callaway, president of Self Test Software. "Yes, it's good for [test question] vendors like us, but this is really about the industry as a whole. There's got to be a concerted effort to protect the integrity of certification."
"[This plea] will raise awareness of this problem," said Robert Pedigo, executive director of the Information Technology Certification Security Council, an industry organization that works to preserve the integrity of IT certification exams. "It is probably fair to take this as a shot across the bow of anyone who is attempting to cheat."
Pedigo said that certification vendors are working on improving exam security through a variety of means, including tighter nondisclosure agreements, greater scrutiny of testing centers and legal action, but they are also looking to the certified community for help. "This is an active concern that every single person who holds a certificate should bear in mind. By becoming certified, one is a member of a professional group. And it's important that one defend the integrity of that group."
The owner of one braindump site who wished to remain anonymous told CertCities.com that the plea was not that big a concern. Unlike CheetSheets.com, which commercially packaged live exam items, the source explained that most braindump sites are free collections of thousands of questions submitted by end users. "There's a big difference between looking at 150 screenshots [of actual] questions and poring through a thousand questions -- you can't memorize a thousand questions," the source said. "I think the certification programs realize this."
Even so, the source added that this case may influence his/her site: "I'm thinking of moving away from actual questions and more toward study guides."  - B.N.
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Current  user Comments for "Cheet-Sheets.com Owner Pleads Guilty; May Face Jail Time"
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| 9/5/02 - Greg from Pennsylvania says: |
No need to consider practice questions as "cheating". No amount of question practice and reading will matter if you don't actually have hands-on experience configuring and troubleshooting. My COMPTia's & MCSE still required that I do the material and pass the REAL exam anyway. This was learned by correcting my own mistakes. An occasional refresher practice only helps to point out if you REMEMBER what you learned. You cannot learn your cert from the so called cheats. |
| 9/5/02 - anonymous says: |
Experience is definately a requirement but in corporate america, in most cases, certs matter a lot. People call me up once a week for a contract job to do 2000 installs, or nt to 2000 migrations or even 2000 to novell 5 installs and unfortunately I dont take the job because am already employed and quite stable and dont need to be working for 2 months and then be unemployed again.. my point is that these people call me because I have done this type of work before AND because they "like" to see the MCSE, MCSA or CNE on my resume. It may be that experience is what seperates the good ones from the paper ones, but many people that call for jobs are told what to look for, and if they dont see somethnig like TCPIP, Novell or MS 2000 or NT certs on a resume, they will, and I have been told this, overlook your resume. Its a game and they do matter most of the time. Unless you have A LOT of experience, you do need certs, can't really have one without the other unless you are a veteran and call your own shots in this industry. |
| 9/5/02 - Gary says: |
If the training material was better, you wouldn't have to read 4 or 5 books and all the technet notes you can find to get ready for a test. I already have a degree. I understand the concepts perfectly. I have lots of experience, but passing the test is more relevant to an IQ test than a competency test. |
| 9/5/02 - phil says: |
Gary has a point. Some of the "authorized" study material is only enough to get you by the test, but barely. Ive used Novell education authorized study material and the self test software didnt really reflect what was in the book. |
| 9/5/02 - Randy from Georgia says: |
Shut down any site that has exact questions from the exams. What a bunch of Dumb A--es that paid all that money for a certification they consider worthless. If you are that gullible you would probably get a degree in basket weaving from a university and expect $80K a year also. Use the explanations section of practice exams and you might learn something. Don't try and memorize the question and answer thinking that it will be worded that way on the exam question on the test. They do actually have a few screen simulations. My memory wasn't good enough to remember all that crap off the cheat sheets so I actually had to understand the concepts and tools to use during the exams. You do need something to learn how MS tests and yes their test questions are poorly designed. I Got news for you, just getting CCNA, MCSE or any cert (even CCIE)without experience means nothing. I am happy with my MCP, MCSA and almost MCSE. Pride in the certification comes with what you put into it. I have a BS in Technical Management but, I studied harder for each MS exam than I ever studied for any University exam but then I only make $64K per year. I teach MS Infrastructure, AD, Server and Pro with CISCO routers included. We do hands on real networks with no canned crap from Microsoft because I totally agree with alot of you on that. Microsoft MOC, ALS which is almost page for page the same as the MCSE Study Guides all suck for training purposes. I follow CISCO semesters 1-4 and know for a fact those instructors teach towards passing the CCNA exam. This includes the simulator stuff. |
| 9/5/02 - anonymous says: |
Randy, it may mean little in the grand scheme of things, but the reality of it is that companies do look for those credentials in the hiring process and the experience that goes along it with it is a big plus. I have been told that even wtih experience, corporate america wants to see those credentials just like they like to see the masters degree..its all a game. You have show what corporate america wants to see if you want in and certs are there among other things. Worthless without experience, that is debateable but true to an extent. No use in being a CCNA if you never "saw" a cisco router. But does it show "some" companies that you are somewhat familiar with cisco equipment? possible, depending on the company. |
| 9/5/02 - Randy from Georgia says: |
If you earned your cert be proud of it and the hell with all the whiners. I did it to prove something to myself and if it helps me on the job or to get a better job that makes it even better. I was not implying that they didn't mean anything, just meant those that really study for these tests shouldn't have to apologize and that you don't start with a high salary without the experience also. I know MCSE's, CCNA's and programmers that can't even partition and format a hard drive and I would bet there are CCIE's in the same boat. To me this is scary. Do they call the help desk? Sounds embarassing! I personally know someone with a degree getting paid over $50K as a programmer for a very huge company but, spent 2 hours long distance with me talking him thru partitioning, formatting and installing W2k Pro on his new hard drive. To me that is the basics all Automation, Programmer, or Network people should know. I think this shows there are still people getting jobs based on paper hoping they won't get caught before they actually know what they are doing. |
| 9/6/02 - Phil says: |
Randy, I completely agree with you. I will admit that I do not use Novell netware 4 or 5 as often as I would like to, but I learned the material and still understand a lot about 4 and 5, not so much 6 yet. I agree with you about certified individuals whether they are Novell, MS, Cisco or any other cert that are unable to do simple tasks. I'll tell you I had a tough time with Novell considering my experience is not all there but is mostly book knowledge. I worked my way through and can honestly say I retained 90% of the material and understand it. I personally am not concerned about making tons of money because to me, doing what I love is more important and the money comes afterwords if you enjoy your job in some cases. Time and on the job experience will eperate the fakes one from the real ones! |
| 9/6/02 - phil says: |
Randy, one other thing. I also know what you mean when you talk about people being a CCNA, CCIE or MCSE and not knowing how to even partition a hard drive. I have personally given a few small interviews for the mom and pop shop I work for becuase im the only on here familiar with the technology,asking some individuals with their CCNA or MCSE about simple things like unattended installs, NTFS VS Fat32, or even something like event viewer and they had to take like 15 minutes to even think about the answer. I believe these training schools have honestly hurt the industry more so than the braindumps. I dont have a heck of a lot of high end networking experience but I do know that ive been able to apply some of what ive learned through my MCSE and CNE studies to become more knowledeable. A lot of these people will not even make it through the interview process especially if the interview is a technical one so the braindumps fall short there. |
| 9/6/02 - Randy from Georgia says: |
Phil you are correct about liking the job. If you don't enjoy your job you aren't ever going to be really good at it. If you study for the tests you learn the concepts and the tools available to do things with. No one has used all of them. I personally pull up a real interface while I study if I don't know exactly where the tool or utility is located. I even run utils from the cmd prompt if I haven't used it before (In Windows for you Unix gurus). Microsoft gives away the 120 day Eval copies of almost all their software(If you download it)so anyone can get the hands on at least for the exposure to the tools, MMC's and interface. |
| 9/6/02 - Johnny freakin Braindump says: |
For all of you who cheat on your exams here is a good link for you to get some good braindump sites. http://certcities.com ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha |
| 9/6/02 - Anonymous says: |
whoever said MS deserves this was right. THe whole testing thing is just another way for MS to make money. C'mon, $100 a test and you can re-test as often as you want BUT ... if you fail twice you have to wait 14 days until you can take it again. Please ... open your eyes people. This is just more $$$ for MS. I am a win2K MCSE and it doesn't man crap in the real world. No employer out there even cares that I am certified ... And the guy who said the questions are tricked ... yeah, definitely. There is not ONE real life scenario question in any MS exam that I have ever taken. It is the MS way and not the "real world" way. This is why we have to pay our $29 to get the troytec (or whoever) test guide .... because the MS exam questions are trick questions and the damn test are expensive man. The guy who said he passed every test the first time with out looking at a test guide ... well .... you are very impressive and definitely a minority. I passed every test I took the first time too but, it was only cause I had troytec. MS certification exams have nothing to do with the real world of computers and networking. When someone tells me they're an MCSE I say, "yeah, but do you know computers?" |
| 9/7/02 - anonymous says: |
I completely disagree with the last post. It does mean a lot in the real world IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE TO GO WITH IT! No it wont mean much if you are an MCSE and have never even serviced a pc. Look on the websites of networking professionals. Why do network pros with 20 years experience pursue certification? Because it does validate knowledge to a degree. Microsoft certification has been hurt due to the braindumps and the training schools, but it is still valuable. If you are a win2k mcse and dont think it means anything and noone cares, why did you spend the time and money to get certified?? Because it does matter, doesnt guarntee anything but it does matter! |
| 9/7/02 - Randy from Georgia says: |
Anyone that says you have to have cheat sheets with the exact questions and answers is wrong and is using the trick question excuse as a cop out. The questions aren't written very well but what to hell does the scenario have to do with the technical operations of any thing? Substitute your own situation if that makes you feel better. I haven't failed a test and I haven't used cheat sheets to prepare for any of the exams. It cost a minimum $875 for MCSE (exams only) so why to heck are all these dumb people paying that if it is worthless. Cisco, Microsoft, and especially Comp TIA are in this for the money or else the exams would be free. Think about it, you push there products for them and they still charge you for proving you know their product. I see many job announcements that require MCSE and CCNA but, hey you might have to move to where the job is at. |
| 9/9/02 - Amadeus from Pine Knot, KY says: |
I've been reading the posts and would love to say that both sides of the argument have good positions but I just can't, these so called braindump/cheat sites aren't helping you study, they're just giving you the answers two some questions you will NEVER see on the test, unless of course you went to heets.com. If you want a good resource to help you pass that dreaded exam then I suggest any one of the books in "Mike Meyers' Certification Passort" series. The series includes A+, Network+, CCNA, Java2, Server+, as well as MCSE and MCSA books. Currently I have the A+ and Network+ books and have found both extremely helpful in preparing for my tests. You don't learn anything by cheating, except maybe the answer to the question, but what happens when you come across that problem in the realworld? Will you know how to troubleshoot the problem, or will you just know what the final outcome or last step in the troubleshooting process is? |
| 9/10/02 - phil says: |
Amadeus , first of all these cheet sheets are exact copies of the test..word for word in some cases. They dont help you learn the material at all instead just help you pass an exam. I know people that took the MS class, read the book, did the hands on exerciese and then took a look at one of these so called braindumps to see what he was up for. In that case I dont see any harm if you do the reading and get as much out of it as you can. But it is rather easy to spot someone who is certified by braindumps rather than reading.. |
| 9/15/02 - Tellinitlikeitis says: |
Braindumps are good for those who lack the real-world experience of enginnering and have problems answering MS senarios. I truly believe that MS was just making a power move, to show america and techies that they have the power and money to shut down sites like braindump that have not contacted them to use the MS information for profit. I think profit is the key issue. NOTE: Money makes the world go round! |
| 9/18/02 - Anonymous from Dalas says: |
Testking should be in jail too. And these Pakis should be putted in prison for 50 years at least! |
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