How to spot fake exam study material and the people selling it

Every exam season, candidates are offered "real" or "leaked" exam questions in social media groups and private chats. Most of it is recycled, wrong, or simply never delivered. These are the signs to look for before you pay anyone.

1. They use the test provider's name or logo

Prometric and Pearson VUE deliver exams; they do not sell question banks. Anyone using their logo, or a health authority's logo, to sell study material is borrowing credibility they do not have.

2. They move you to private messages

A genuine provider publishes its prices and answers questions in the open. A seller who will only quote a price in a private chat, and presses you to decide quickly, does not want other people to see the conversation.

3. The same post appears everywhere

Identical adverts pasted into dozens of groups, written in capital letters and full of exclamation marks, with stock photos of "successful doctors", are a pattern, not a coincidence.

4. They promise a guaranteed pass

Nobody can guarantee an exam result. "100% guaranteed", "leaked paper" and "pass without studying" are the vocabulary of a scam.

5. They ask for a personal bank transfer

Payment to an individual's account, arranged in a chat, leaves you with no receipt and no way to get your money back.

6. There is no real business behind them

Look for a company name, a registered address and a website on its own domain. A free email address and no address at all are bad signs.

7. The reviews do not hold up

Screenshots of chat messages and home-made certificates are easy to fake. So is a burst of five-star reviews all posted in the same week.

8. They cannot say where the questions come from

Ask who writes the questions and what their qualifications are. Poor grammar, missing explanations and answers with no reasoning tell you the material was copied, not written.

9. They work on your nerves

Pressure, urgency and sympathy stories are sales tactics. A provider that is confident in its material lets you try it first.

What to do instead

Use material that explains why each answer is right, check a sample before you buy, and pay through a method that gives you a receipt. And remember that sharing or buying real exam questions breaches the exam rules and can cost you your licence.