ScoreTop VIP users in trouble ?

[Darth.vader]

I am opening a new thread as this news has big impact on many who have used scoretop.com for VIP ( for 30 $ ) access.

News from BW

Shutting Down a GMAT Cheat Sheet

News from GMAC
Courts Give Graduate Management Admission Council Domain Name Ownership, Hard Drive in Copyright Infringement Suit

Also it reminds us the consequences of posting copyright materials.

GMAC has seized the ScoreTop site's domain name and shut down the site, and is analyzing a hard drive containing payment information. GMAC said any students found to have used the Scoretop site will have their test scores canceled, the schools that received them will be notified, and the student will not be permitted to take the test again. Since most top B-schools require the GMAT, the students will have little chance of enrolling. "This is illegal" said Judy Phair, GMAC's vice-president for communications. "We have a hard drive, and we're going to be analyzing it. If you used the site and paid your $30 to cheat, your scores will be canceled. They're in big trouble."

[john_almighty]

Ouch, this is going to hurt quite a lot of people .. just check out the traffic details for the site from Alexa:

Scoretop.com users come from these countries:

India69.0%
United States23.9%
United Kingdom2.3%
Singapore0.7%
Nicaragua0.3%

Wow, this looks serious to me. Hmm .... never heard of this site before......

[gabriel666]

Actually rumors of Scoretop being investigated for fraudulent practices has been around for quite some time (I had heard about it last year). GMAC has been doing a lot lately to crackdown on such websites and organizations that publish live and copyrighted GMAC questions. Apparently China and India figure in the top of their list (Please dont quote me on this, as the information is from unverified sources). China especially had many institutions that paid students to remember the GMAT questions and then these questions were taught and published by these institutions, I have heard that students from such classes did have their GMAT scores canceled.

Anyways, if someone took up the Scoretop VIP membership with the knowledge that they discuss live questions, which by common knowledge is illegal, then they had it coming. I have no sympathy for people who knowingly got involved in this scam, actually they deserve such action. For the people who were unknowingly part of this scam any action against them would be unfortunate.

[Darth.vader]

Yes. Few months back scoreTop was ranked among Top 65k websites by alexa and most of the users are Indians. PG has rank of around 7 k ( Ahead of vault.com )

Originally Posted by john_almighty

Ouch, this is going to hurt quite a lot of people .. just check out the traffic details for the site from Alexa:

Scoretop.com users come from these countries:

India69.0%
United States23.9%
United Kingdom2.3%
Singapore0.7%
Nicaragua0.3%

Wow, this looks serious to me. Hmm .... never heard of this site before......

[viveksharma152]

What about those students who were only members of the site and not VIP members. There could be many students who just registered there and participated in discussions that were available to all.

[archanaiyyer]

i dono that they are posting real questions and the day before score top was shut down i paid for vip membership.. i dint get access to any materials there as it was closed the very next day ... and i havent discussed any of the questions there .... why i registered for VIP membership is .. when ever i entered a link it said the access is for only VIP member not for others.. so wat abt the ppl who jus joined the day b4 and for the ppl who became the member used all the resources and who were discussing ....

[archanaiyyer]

According to me cancelling of the scores who have been a member of scoretop either the vip or jus a member shd not be punished.. see it is the site which was used by ppl right frm 2003 .. do GMAC is going to cancel all the scores ???

suppose if the ppl who have accessed vip material and if he/ she has got into harvard or insead and if they had completed their MBA .. GMAC is going to seize their certificates ???

i heard frm my frnds that scoretop is being under watch by GMAC why dint GMAC dint make a statement in their site that accessing scoretop materials is illegal or somthing like that ..

if GMAC is going to punish the users or the VIP members ...who caught into this trap without knowing .. even every forum is understake
Even PG where we are discussing the OG questions which is again against the GMAC and its copyright act ... so are they going to ban all the ppl who are members of the yahoo groups and PG....

If GMAC is not keeping a watch on these sites how do ppl who have joined 3 days before know whether it is posting real gmat questions or not

i m still confused ... i m taking my gmat in another a month .. dono what is gona happen ...

[Apurv]

Originally Posted by archanaiyyer

A

if GMAC is going to punish the users or the VIP members ...who caught into this trap without knowing .. even every forum is understake
Even PG where we are discussing the OG questions which is again against the GMAC and its copyright act ... so are they going to ban all the ppl who are members of the yahoo groups and PG....

If GMAC is not keeping a watch on these sites how do ppl who have joined 3 days before know whether it is posting real gmat questions or not

i m still confused ... i m taking my gmat in another a month .. dono what is gona happen ...

Scoretop was actively encouraging live questions, which is what got them into soup.

On PG, you are simply not allowed to post copyrighted or confidential material and we don't support it because it is wrong to steal.

Read our caution notice - http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/gmat-a...otice-all.html (Official Announcement - CAUTION NOTICE to all GMAT section users)

In case you have been posting copyrighted material on the PG forums, you are doing it at your own risk and PG will not protect you if a law enforcement agency contacts us to get your IP addresses. We will cooperate with them and give a record of every IP address you've been using. So go back and clean your act now and be careful in the future. Ignoring this message too will not help, you just have to clean up anything copyrighted you've posted by Editing Posts because all your past IP addresses are with us.

[gabriel666]

Originally Posted by archanaiyyer

According to me cancelling of the scores who have been a member of scoretop either the vip or jus a member shd not be punished.. see it is the site which was used by ppl right frm 2003 .. do GMAC is going to cancel all the scores ???

suppose if the ppl who have accessed vip material and if he/ she has got into harvard or insead and if they had completed their MBA .. GMAC is going to seize their certificates ???

i heard frm my frnds that scoretop is being under watch by GMAC why dint GMAC dint make a statement in their site that accessing scoretop materials is illegal or somthing like that ..

if GMAC is going to punish the users or the VIP members ...who caught into this trap without knowing .. even every forum is understake
Even PG where we are discussing the OG questions which is again against the GMAC and its copyright act ... so are they going to ban all the ppl who are members of the yahoo groups and PG....

If GMAC is not keeping a watch on these sites how do ppl who have joined 3 days before know whether it is posting real gmat questions or not

i m still confused ... i m taking my gmat in another a month .. dono what is gona happen ...

Archana dont worry. I am sure GMAC wont behave erratically and just start canceling the GMAT scores of members of Scoretop. It is people who were involved in discussing "live" GMAT questions that are going to be in trouble.

Discussing OG questions is not illegal as they have been already released by the GMAC. What scoretop was doing is that they used to get students who have written the GMAT to reveal the questions they came across on the actual GMAT test and then used to discuss them on their forum (Similar tactics is used by many CAT prep companies in India). This is illegal as these questions are GMAC property and have not been made public yet by GMAC. If you were not involved in these discussions then you dont have to worry.

Regards

[Darth.vader]

If you were not a VIP member, Dont worry. GMAC communication VP specifically has mentioned that paid members are in trouble.

Originally Posted by viveksharma152

What about those students who were only members of the site and not VIP members. There could be many students who just registered there and participated in discussions that were available to all.