Police Seize Assets of TestKiller.com
7/10/2002 -- On June 6 San Antonio police seized assets of TestKiller Ltd., the company that runs the practice exam Web site TestKiller.com.
According to a police report filed with the Bexar County, Texas District Court on June 20, the raid was prompted by Microsoft, who alleged that the site was selling Microsoft certification exam questions.
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In his affidavit, seizing police officer Daniel Flaharty, a detective in the Special Crimes Unit of the San Antonio Police Department, wrote that he was contacted by a representative from the anti-piracy office of Microsoft. The unnamed representative alleged to Flaharty that TestKiller Ltd. was selling Microsoft "trade secrets" in the form of questions and answers to Microsoft exams.
According to the report, Flaharty began an investigation based on Microsoft's complaint, which led to the June 6 seizure of $408,566.84 in cash as well as several phones, printers, computer equipment, software and other items from at least one location.
No charges have been filed in this investigation. Calls made to the Bexar County district attorney's office to determine whether the investigation was ongoing were not returned as of press time.
Garry L. Neale, one of Testkiller Ltd.'s owners, politely declined CertCities.com's request for an interview, referring all questions to his attorney, who is out of the country this week.
A spokesperson for Microsoft confirmed that the company was aware of the investigation but said he could not comment on it due to the legal nature of the story.
The Testkiller.com Web site has been offline since early June.
Neale is the former owner of Troy Technologies (TroyTec.com), which in December settled a civil copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit brought by certification vendor CompTIA (see "CompTIA v. TroyTec Settled; Company Pulls CompTIA-Related Products from Site, Denies Wrongdoing").
CertCities.com will continue to follow this story and bring you further updates as they develop.  -B.N.
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There are 259  user Comments for “Police Seize Assets of TestKiller.com”
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| 2/9/04: me again from USA says: |
Oops on the amount. Maybe it was $66,000 worth of software plus $408,566.84? :-) |
| 4/21/04: IT Admin CCNA MCSE from Europe says: |
Hi Guys/Girls, Just stumbled onto this site, read the comments and thought I would add something. 1. I have only been in IT since 1999 after passing my IT Systems Technicians course (2 years). 2. I am a Win2000 MCSE, working toward my 2003 MCSE, to get my Win2000 MCSE I studied really hard for a Year AND used Braindumps. The reason being, as quite a few people point out, questions in the Microsoft Exams are only 60% Real World. Why pay lots of money to fail? So do you think I cheated? Do you think because I studied Braindumps aswell as the books I can't do my job? Well thats not what the Firms I haved worked for think! I was a European IT Administrator for a very large oil company for 2 years, also a Key member in Designing and implementing a Win2000 Domain. I have since moved on to another Worldwide Company and am a member of a team responsible for IT in Europe,Africa and Asia. 3. So you guys & Girls who are complaining about people using Braindumps, who are you to tell me that I am no good at IT. I agree there are people who are no good at it and pass through Braindumps but they get weeded out as soon as they look for a job. or are you annoyed that:- a) You are worried that people who do Braindumps pose a threat to you? In that case, you must be really bad at your job, if you worry so much. b) You have a really low paid and boring job, and are jealous that other people who also study AND use braindumps have a naturaly better resource management than you? or lastly c) You are of low intelligence and even by using Braindumps you would fail, so you jump on the wagon with everyother idiot because it makes you feel better than you actualy are? Either way, I have a great job, I am good at what I do, I study hard, I use Braindumps (to understand what Microsoft want) and Hey, I PASS! |
| 4/23/04: Scott from Australia says: |
Something to consider. Why it is that some intelligent, experienced and well educated people use cheat type sites to get through the MCSE. People that have been through Collage/University and never once considered paying for cheat answers. The why goes something like this. Take the example of Collage/University. You attend classes. You worked your way through theory, practical work, assignments, short tests and one last exam big exam. If you passed you had a feeling of achievement and self satisfaction. If you failed you did the subject again. This time you studied even harder, you put more effort in and you passed. But what if. What would have happened if you had failed because 20% of the last exam questions were not covered in the course. What would you have said to the Teacher? What would you have said to others that also failed? What if the Teacher now said “Sorry but Hay for $200 a pop you can re-sit that last exam as many times as you like!!!”. Later you are talking to someone on an Internet chat room. He sympathizes with you. “You know” He say’s “That hole testing thing this is a joke” , “All that work you put in!”, “All those hours of study!”, “And for what”…. He then tells you that for $20 he can show you a way to pass that exam. For that matter, for $50 you can pass all the exams first time, and no one will know. This strike a note with some of you? As for me. I did 2 Engineering Diplomas, the Novell CNE, ECNE, MCNE, the Citrix CCA, and 5 years of the Compaq ASE exams. Not once did I look to brain dumps or cheat sites. I do one Microsoft MCP exam and here I now am. Searching the net for words like Troytec and Testkiller. |
| 9/2/04: robert6687 from los angeles says: |
anonymous is a big whiner , i bet you were teachers pet, crying because he couldnt sit on the teachers lap !! anyways if you are a "poser" mcsa or mcse you wont go that far anyways ..... who cares if someone got a little push in the right direction w the braindumps. what has Windows done for you anyways ?? give me a break ! im gonna use a unnamed online resource and im gonna love it when i pass, i know teh material, but i am not no einstein |
| 5/30/05: Jerry from NY says: |
The problem is that some people saying 'I'm glad that this type of action is being taken by Microsoft and other organizations. I feel that with my MOC program, that I didn't need and do not need any help from these TestKillers' but unfortunately those people whom using TestKillers and other cheating items and they can't pass without it. I don't know why you guys don't be honest and say that there is no fucking way to pass any of the goddamn exams of MS or Cisco without using these shits! |
| 6/29/05: MS from Florida says: |
All of you who use Braindumps and Examcrams etc. are really pathetic. I would say that Certifications are a measure of your skill, and not a way to get the job so that you can train while you earn, but that's probably too complicated for you. So, I'll make it simple. If you have to memorize questions to become certified, don't waste your time. You're in the wrong business. Get another job. Maybe something clerical, or something in the fast food industry. All of you idiots who cheat on the exams, and then try to justify it by saying, "Ooh, big bad Microsoft, I HAVE to cheat because NOONE can pass these exams without knowing the questions beforehand", and those of you who justify your laziness or lack of talent by saying "Well, the braindump merely pointed me in the right direction" etc. etc. are full of shit. Don't kid yourselves. The exams DO test real world skills. Yes, some of the scanarios in some of the questions never come up in the real world, but the test is trying to gauge your ABILITY TO TROUBLESHOOT. If any of you cheaters had any real experience you'd know that some of the situations that you run into in the real world have no relation to what "should" happen, and when you run into one of them then you'll see that there's no substitute for knowing the OS, and not just the test question. By the way, all of you cheaters out there, I'd like to thank all of you for devaluing my certification. When the smoke clears only those of us who actually know the operating system etc. will be working in the field. All of you braindumpers out there will be back to flipping burgers where you belong. |
| 6/6/06: Joe from Michigan says: |
Look, fact remains if you know your stuff you shouldn't care what the other losers do to cheat cause they won't last in the field anyways. Get off your high horse Microshaft. |
| 6/26/07: Steve from VA says: |
Yeah for the test sites. It's all good. I am an IT educator. I have a BSIT degree and have some certs: MCSE plus Internet (WinNT) and CCNA. After earning (the hard way) my MCSE, I opted to become even better at my craft (IT SYS Admin) by teaching and I became an MCT. What I learned from other MCT's and instructors shocked me and changed my mind about dump sites. I was told that MS, in an attempt to "prove" the value of their certification enacted a "scheme" to only allow the highest percentile to pass. What they did was change the bar on the exam every time the pass rate surpassed a percentage of all test takers for (usually) a month. This was constantly changing and my sources tell me it went as low as 65%, meaning if 66% of all test takers passed, the bar was raised to make the test harder to pass. Although initially, not hard to do, as the IT industry took off and IT certs became valued, in order to continue to raise the bar, MS had to add more obtuse test questions in order to be able to continue to raise the bar. These questions were not in any course material (MS or otherwise), or in the purview of any normal SYS Admin, and could only found with in-depth searches of tech-net or, or not found at all. At first I thought it was nonsense, until I took my first tests for Win2K. I was teaching it and using it and could not for the life of me understand where some of theses questions were coming from. Finally, MS realized they'd goof by creating a test bank so onerous most test takers - even experienced Admins HAD to go to dumps to have even a hope of passing. SO then, they tried to get rid of the WinNT MCSE cert and boy what a ruckus that raised. I haven't tested in awhile, but I've learned that to succeed you have to have the skills. Even if a cert gets you in the door, only your skills will keep you there. I've been the technical lead of many interviews and many a certified prospect was shown the door. All in all I'm glad for the test sites. They prove that certs aren't always all that by helping even the dim witted to pass, and they are a useful tool for those really willing to learn the industry because they prove that even those of us (already) in the industry have a bunch more to learn - and it's not always found in books because if it was, the sites wouldn't succeed as well as they do. As an IT educator, it make my job continually more secure. Yeah for test sites. |
| 8/6/07: Anonymous says: |
I would like to say that it doesn't take long for an experienced Sys Admin, Developer, DBA, etc to spot someone that has used Testkiller or the like to get a good position within a company. Problem is: This person displays the certificates and makes it known that others don't. I've been in the I.T. software design and development business for 27 years and still I don't understand how these people survive. I've been called many times to fix what these individuals have kludged. Also, many times I have seen well qualified programers or DBA's being railroaded by these people. Just because of a certificate. What's needed is exams for hiring managers to give to job applicants. It's a shame to Microsoft's Certification program. |
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