University of Sydney: Human Trafficking Criminal wwww.ielts.agency 103
This illustration vignette is not theoretical. IELTS staff routinely ignore messages left via their local
customer service number (e.g. Magoosh, 2017b). There is ample evidence available from public
testimonies that IELTS use its appeals (remarking) process to deliberately extort further profits
from the (estimated) hundreds of thousands of people which it has repeatedly failed using fake
marginal fail scores of 6.5 for its subjective speaking and writing examination content.
Illustration Vignette: Criminal extortion via poor customer serviceThis common real-life scenario is typical of how IELTS earn tens of millions of dollars every
year from its profit-generating extortionate appeals process.Fatima has invested most of her life savings to sit one IELTS test so that she can migrate
to Canada as a skilled worker. She is eligible for this visa, subject to passing her IELTS test.Fatima receives scores of: 8.0 listening, 8.0 speaking, 8.0 reading and 6.5 for writing for
her IELTS academic test. Fatima is surprised by this score of 6.5 as writing is her strongest
skills and her IELTS-TESOL qualified coaches routinely award her scores of 8.5 for writing
under exam conditions. She is convinced that she ‘aced’ this section of the IELTS exam.Fatima is convinced that the score of 6.5 must be an innocent typographical error. She
telephones the local IELTS support hotline in Dubai and this number always diverts to the
voicemail. Fatima explains her story multiple times and her calls are never returned.Fatima visits the IELTS office in Dubai and asks staff to check that her score of 6.5 is not a
data-entry clerical error. The customer service support clerk explains to Fatima that they
will not action her request unless she pays USD$150 for an Enquiry on Results service. This
profit-generating process involves payment for a full remark of all sections of Fatima’s
exam even though she does not require this service.