WASSCE results not for sale - WAEC

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has cautioned the general public to be wary of fraudsters claiming they are capable of altering the results of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates.

Such persons, it said, who claimed to be staff of the council were only using dubious and fraudulent means to defraud the unsuspecting candidates.

“Those people are fraudsters, they are not staff of WAEC. No one can change your results and give you anything better than what the Council awards. It is your performance which determines your grade,” the Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, told candidates in an interview with the Junior Graphic.

According to her, the council had received complaints from some of the private candidates who wrote the examination that “some people are calling and texting them that they can give them good results  if they paid certain amounts of money.”

The fraudsters claim to have access to the database of WAEC and can alter the results for candidates, only if they paid between GH¢400 and GH¢500. 

The candidates are then asked to make the payments through mobile money transfer.

Based on the reports received, Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said WAEC had reported the matter to the police who were currently investigating and anyone caught would be dealt with drastically.

Aside from the police report, she said, the council had begun sending text messages to all the candidates to be wary of such fraudsters.

“We have started sending the candidates text alerts to be on the lookout for such people. We would soon follow up with publications in the newspapers,” she said.

Asked how the fraudsters got the telephone numbers of the candidates if they (fraudsters) were not staff of WAEC, Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said, the council suspected that they (fraudsters) got the candidates’ details (names, index and contact numbers) from the Internet cafes where they completed the registration process.

“At some of the cafes, the operators ask you to write down your details for input. At other cafes, because of the large number of candidates registering, the operators ask candidates to leave their details and come back later and check their registration details. It is when all these things happen that some people get hold of the candidates’ contact numbers,” she explained. 

A total of 128,292 candidates wrote the WASSCE for private candidates this year.