- The owner of Edumarks, the website that illegally sold matric results to learners, has been arrested today by the Hawks.
- Just days before his arrest, a company account was actively engaging with users on social media and sending funny pictures.
- It is not known at the moment if Edumarks is implicated in the breach of matric results that occurred last week.
Allegedly fraudulent “company” Edumarks immediately became a prime suspect of the 2024 matric results breach after it claimed it could give learners early access to their matric results for a R100 fee.
Just days before the HAWKS raided the home of the alleged owner of Edumarks, the company was replying to comments on X that mentioned it and sending memes to other users who claimed it was fake.
— Edumarks South Africa (@Edumarks_za) January 13, 2025
— Edumarks South Africa (@Edumarks_za) January 13, 2025
According to the report of the arrest from GroundUp, the suspect who is believed to be the owner of Edumarks is a 21-year-old man which coincides with his social media usage of posting popular meme reactions.
In fact, Edumarks was quite active on X even after it came to light that the matric exam marks had been leaked after a breach at the Department of Basic Education. The account was responding to users the day of, though many of the tweets were deleted.
The Edumarks website stopped being available around the same time. We believe it was taken offline by authorities ahead of the official release of the matric results as the website was selling legitimate matric results to learners through their examination numbers.
It is believed that the owner of the website received the leaked marks from one of South Africa’s universities, likely from an employee who has been colluding with Edumarks for some time. The website has been running every year since 2021, offering early marks.
At the time it was not believed that Edumarks had anything to do with the breach of the department’s system and that the marks they received were not the finalised marks that were leaked. This would mean that the 2024 matric results had two separate breaches.
Edumarks likely was illegally selling marks that the universities receive earlier on 11th January, while a potential separate breach leaked the finalised marks set to be released to the public on the 14th. It is also possible that the breaches were related.
We will have to await more information as the official investigation plays out.
