Students appearing for the ongoing II PUC final examination and who are out to con the system are themselves becoming easy targets for conmen. After two exams were postponed following reports that papers had been leaked, these conmen are using this occurrence to make quick money. Between Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday, a hand-written Physics question paper was sold to hundreds of students who believed that it was the leaked question paper which will be given for Tuesday's exam.
The students who bought the paper found that only 31 marks questions were matching questions worth only 31 marks matched the actual paper. The students who bought the fake question papers for Rs 3,000 each on Monday night said they were approached by a group of people who assured them that it was the Physics question paper for Tuesday. "They used the student network to sell these question papers. This group of six people said they were from Tumkur. They were in the city till Monday morning and sold several hundred copies of the question paper. Students staying in hostels and as paying guests were their target. To our shock, most of the questions were not matching at all.
"The conmen worked in several groups. They used the rumours surrounding the II PUC question paper leak. Till midnight students were receiving messages related to the question paper leak. I feel these messages were also forwarded by the same gang to create panic among students and influence them to purchase these fake question papers," said another student. Education department officials said that every year people take advantage of students to earn money. "Instead of buying such question papers, students should inform the police," he rightly said.