ILTO strives to protect test results and certificates through its FPO - Fraud Prevention Office that has established strategies to have a secure environment and test results that institutions can rely on.
A picture of the test taker must be uploaded in the system on the test day. This would help the test administrator confirm the identity of the individual. A photo ID is required on the test day, to prevent cases of identity theft.
ILTO encourages distributors worldwide to sign institutions that demonstrate a secure environment and become a trusted allied to manage the TECS. The day of the test, the test taker cannot carry any electronic device such as voice recorders, cameras, smart phones, tablets, flash drives or any other material that may be used to record questions, answers or allow communication with any person outside the test room. The test is supervised by proctors willing to solve any technical issue, but alert to any fraud possibility.
ILTO permanently analyzes test results in different regions with the intention to detect any anomaly, understood as any deviation from the common arrangement of test results. These may include a high gap between the results of two different skills or incongruity in the overall examinee proficiency result.
ILTO reserves the right to further contact an examinee to verify the identity of the test taker or the speaking skills, after the analysis of the test results and the detection of potential anomalies. ILTO may also remove the test certificate and require the examinee to retake the test in a different test center to confirm the validity of the results. If a stressed anomaly or a series of a likelihood of fraud is detected in a test center. ILTO will also contact and oversee the test general performance, being this a cause of the termination of any corporate relation with the organization.
TECS certificates have a Fraud Prevention Code that may be entered in the website of ILTO, in order to confirm the information on the certificate, preventing any certificate edition that opens the gateway to identity theft or score alteration.
Validated and calibrated test items replaced in a timely basis to assure that the examinee who takes the test more than once actually interact with the items because of the demonstration of the English proficiency and not the use of memory tactics. This together with randomization algorithm inside the TECS system narrows the possibility that a test taker sees an item twice.
The administration dashboard includes a section where the test administrator may validate if a test taker has done any kind of fraud action, by entering an ID number, name or surname and confirming the individual’s information. ILTO also encourages partner institutions to report possible fraud actions and individual trough the same section tool.
