Yesterday I received a text message from some site called "wooe" and I think many other GATE aspirants would have also received the same. 
They advertise by sending the below SMS: 
GATE 2020 Important Notification released all aspirant are advised to check click http://bit.ly/2moRuzB
Screenshot below:
 
It seems like they are offering test series for ₹479 and they give free "netflix" for one year for "educational purposes". They also claim to have faculties from IIT-Madras. 
Adding to this there are a lot of reviews to this in Quora. All these reviews are fake.
There are complaints lodged against this website which can be seen in consumer court site as well.
 
GATE site has this below message: (http://gate.iitd.ac.in/
"GATE 2020 authority is not involved with any specially designed test series for GATE aspirants. Please do not believe in the phishing/fake emails which are being circulated to the GATE aspirants by some fraudulent groups . Please note that all the relevant information about the GATE 2020 is available only at this official website."
 
Hopefully this keeps everyone informed here and prevent people falling prey to such frauds.
posted in Others Nov 2, 2019
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29 Comments

29 Comments

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Yes i received that too . Whats even more disturbing is that how did they get the contact details of us aspirants . Clearly unauthorized data theft.
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I received it too many times,

Earlier it was just limited to SMS but soon it entered into emails including name and all.

Then I searched about it and found it is going on whole different level, including making their own questions and answers in Quora, making own complaints and solution in Consumer Forum as well as making Youtube videos.

Earlier I send the mail to organizing committee to look into this as it is using IIT name and misusing it.

The person is probably not from CSE Branch, (look the site) as well as not knows much about GATE Exam (using previous host name)
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133111
My quora answer against them were removed due to mass downvoting and moreover they personally threatened me in my WhatsApp for taking down my answer.
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one point to be think from where did they get our data (mobile no or mail id)?
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I've been receiving this since 2018. It started when I registered for MadeEasy test series. I highly suspect they are the culprits for selling the data.
I've sent mails to IIT Madras already regarding this. They haven't taken any actions as far as I know.

The people who received the messages - have you purchased test series from MadeEasy/AceAcademy at any point in time ?
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Yes. It was reported earlier too that the data was leaked from MadeEasy registration. But again it is unlikely that they will be doing it intentionally - may be a staff there or from their servers. Anyway there is no privacy for ones data there. So sad that "fakeness" is only rewarded in our country.
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Can you please share that whatsapp Number?
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+1 (909) 328-3511
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Some people might even contact the above number to ask for discount 😄
reshown Nov 4, 2019 by
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Bro, I don't want discount 😂
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But, this number is not active on whatsapp now.

Can you please share those messages to me.
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Why you need them?
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I have made every effort to expose them, even I called to Cyber Crime department Delhi, but they didn't attended my call. I and my classmates are collecting multiple proofs against them. We also talked to IIT Madras and each professor whose name is mention there.

Just wanna help poor students.
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i am wondering, " how those people are not punished till now even they are officially using IIITM brand value "
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Here comes, the condition of our India.

Everywhere Gate Authorities, IIT Madras authorities are just releasing notices about this fraud. But no action taken against them. We all are still receiving the same messages. I don't think this is so difficult to catch these guys. They are not cyber crime expert, I guess.

But no step is taken by the Authorities nor Cyber Crime departments yet. Why? Are they waiting to feed them completely?

This is so disgusting. Every Gate aspirants know about this today. Many of them are searching for a proper platform to complaint. But we have nowhere to place a complaint.

This is so hard.
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They have some guts , using IITM brand , threatening Arjun sir personally , sending messages and mails to everyone.

How did they got Arjun sir's phone number ? sir does not buy any test series.

And not just this if you visit their website , there have  a list of their successful students , which include about 300 students and many  toppers from gate 2016 - 2019 batches including some toppers from BSNL JE-2016 exam.

After paying them the money the message that we get quotes " your transaction with Abhishek Narwariya on date is successful"

not only this they are highly powerful people.

If you write against them on quora , your post would be dropped, downvoted , if you file a complaint against them in indian consumer complaint forum , your complaint will be marked resolved. You can see here the list of complaints against them and all are resolved.

https://www.consumercomplaints.in/wooe-wooe-test-series-for-gate-and-ese-c2224798

Quora is still okay but how can website like consumer court site neglect these complaints ?

 

 

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My number is not difficult to get for an individual - but they doing it means they dedicated some person just for this purpose. Thats how these companies work. In India if one has some money they can bribe people and get them to do anything. Like doing mass downvoting on quora comments they can do mass bad reviews etc for any product and this was their indirect threat to me. Many of the platforms like Quora, Amazon etc are working automatically and those who knows their working can do these kind of hacks too. If you see the worst review for GO book is on top in Amazon page and this is also done by "one rebel" of GO. Anyway we have only limited printed books but one can see whatall such "group of people" can do. As commented earlier here, the most unfortunate thing is "spammers are not punished" in India. That is why even IITM did not do anything. They could have spend their resources and filed a complaint. But who will pay for the court case and all. And what is the use of any verdict after 10-15 years? Our courts anyway are busy on cases related to temples and mosques. I have their conversation with me, but dont think it is of any use as their threat itself was not direct. "They did not harm me, why am I harming them" is the main thing they asked.
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They have even created fake profiles with names of toppers in gate exam and wrote answers according to their need.. Look at these profiles..

https://www.quora.com/profile/Hemanth-Kumar-Chitrothu-1(fake)

 

https://www.quora.com/profile/Hemanth-Kumar-Chitrothu  (genuine)

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I know they have so many men's power. They are like god today, can do everything. And we can't do anything.
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Not exactly true. When I was younger I used to complain a lot and at least >50% of them had a result even though it took some time. So, it is heartening to see youngsters voicing against such frauds. The sad part is the amount of frauds has only increased in the last 10-15 years. After the India Against Corruption protest about 10 years back, now every Indian seems happy with corruption.

You people protesting against these fraud is similar to a bottom-up approach of problem solving. Result is not easy. On other hand if some politician or officer with power has done it, it could be solved much easier - top down approach. Does anyone even talk about these corruptions or frauds these days? And even posting negative about them might get them more joinees as I have seen people asking "how are the questions" even for a spam report. God save our new generation.
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@Arjun

i want to ask this :

does our verification file at gateoverflow profile are safe at your servers?

actually i accidentally gave a govt document as verification file 

Is it possible admin can revert the changes and delete that file from the database because instead of that i will add an id card as verification.

Sir this will be helpful for me,

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May I know why do you think it is not safe? Which all places you give your government id and are all those safe? I can surely say that GO server is much safer than any of them. Anyway we have stopped manual verification and all the IDs have been deleted. The only point of it was to arrest fake profiles.
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I don't think he meant to accuse you, I also had the same doubt that you store the docs as plain text or as encrypted media. thank you for clarifying :)
edited Nov 7, 2019 by
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@Arjun Okay sir thanks for clarifying my doubt.

I trust your words that GO servers are safe.

My intention was honest and not to do objection to the security of GO servers.

i thought this is the right thread to ask.

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The identity files were stored as plain text files only. Now is it anyway less secure than storing them as encrypted ones? If so can someone show a loophole here?

Yes, someone who has access to the system can get the files but this is true even if it is encrypted as somewhere decryption must happen. The main difference I feel where GO server differs from many others is that it is hosted on Amazon AWS and the access to it is restricted to only admins -- not even any developer. And Amazon has strict privacy and security policies. Still an absolutely brilliant hacker might be able to breach it as even Apple servers were hacked.

But to open bank accounts, to get mobile SIM, for travel purpose etc you all are sharing your ID proof without any concern. What sort of security or privacy is there? In India we must admit that identity information is not private.
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I thought our data was sent to them by coaching centres to earn some money. But if everyone is receiving it, it seems the breach could be from the Organizing institute itself!
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No, I didn't enroll in any test series though got an sms last week.
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Just now I have received message for test series which is showing that this   is from iit Delhi so please check it properly then take a decision.

The reason why it seems fake to me is why one give the Netflix subscription with test series what is the relation between these two things.

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IIT Delhi conducted GATE - 2020, and GATE - 2021 will be conducted by IIT Bombay, please make common sense and decide wisely.