NEW DELHI: Sharp thinking and repeated checks using digital tools on Sunday helped the National Testing Agency (NTA) escape from landing itself in another major controversy.
The NTA was set to begin the process of transferring the overall fee amount paid by candidates which worked out to approximately Rs 300 crore, when it detected a scam.
The reimbursement was announced in the aftermath of the cancellation of the May 3 NEET-UG examination which resulted in outrage among students and parents across the country.
An NTA source told this reporter, “We came across a single bank account for 70 candidates in one instance. Unless there are twins and the parents have decided to open a joint account for both of them, banks will not permit the same. This put us on the guard immediately. We immediately resorted to extensive use of data analytics and digital tools which revealed many such instances. The reimbursement process was immediately put on hold.”
This prompted the NTA to issue a public notice late on Sunday night urging all candidates to double check their bank accounts and introduce a two-factor authentication system.
“We alerted the police immediately and the Gujarat cyber police tracked it down to a few in Bihar engaging it such kind of activity. Taking advantage of the tendency of some people to use weak passwords like 12345678 or their date of birth, the cybercriminal logged into the bank accounts of multiple people,” the source added.
The reimbursement of fee has temporarily been stopped, another source said, “NTA could have lost crores if this unethical activity was not detected in the nick of time. Thankfully, we did not transfer a single rupee to anyone as of now,” he added.
The fee paid by candidates for the cancelled exam are as follows: General category Rs 1,700; OBC and EWS - Rs 1,600; SC, ST and Persons With Disabilities Rs 1,000 and NRI candidates Rs 9,500.