Cheating Companies Infiltrate Student Group Chats

Plus, six arrested for stealing, selling SAT questions. Plus, Harvard to merge its academic integrity office.

Issue 118

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Cheating Companies Use “Plants” to Infiltrate Student Groups

News out of Ireland (subscription required), where selling or advertising contract cheating is banned, is that cheating companies are joining student WhatsApp discussion groups in order to lure them into using cheating services, according to government regulators.

The news coverage cites the link between growth in illicit cheating services and online assessments. It describes the situation as a, “growing international problem.”

That cheating sellers are using student communication platforms to troll for student customers should surprise no one. It’s a pretty common tactic. The article further highlights that essay writing services also use AI-powered bots to promote their services and that there is:

also rapid growth in services offering answers to popular questions, which students can easily access even in “live” online exams.

The take away is that cheating profiteers are persistent and creative, even in places where cheating services are banned and colleges and government agencies are active.

Even so, the more important piece of what’s happening in Ireland is the government’s continuing effort to work with social media platforms to suppress the advertising and marketing on which cheating providers rely. The article says the government is “following up” with tech companies such as Google and Meta and that it has had “very positive engagement” with TikTok which:

has already removed some profiles and from its social media platform and has committed to revising its community guidelines to ensure provision of contract cheating were not tolerated.

Cheating companies, wherever they reside and wherever they target students, depend heavily on social media ads and influence. Cutting off their access to those platforms may be the single biggest prevention tool any institution or country can take.

It’s only a matter of time - one can hope - that as social media companies move to comply with engaged governments such as Ireland, they can also be convinced to apply similar, uniform standards in jurisdictions such as the United States and Canada, even though neither country actually prohibits selling, using or advertising cheating services.

Arrests Made in Selling SAT Questions

An outlet named HaberTusba, which seems to be a news aggregator, has a story on the arrest of six people for stealing and selling SAT questions in Turkey.

The article says Turkish police busted a ring of suspected SAT cheats who were using a familiar system - having someone take the test to steal the questions then selling those questions via dark chatrooms and message boards. In this case, the coverage says, the stolen questions were selling for “$2,000 to $3,000.” The coverage also says the SAT in question was for foreign students seeking admission to universities in the United States and Turkey.

From the story:

The investigation revealed that the suspects were running the scheme over Telegram and naming two people, one identified as CM and the other as MN, as the suspects who fetch the obtained questions in from Azerbaijan to Turkey.

Continuing:

Then the questions were provided to the buyers in what network of the suspects called “quarantine homes.” Search the addresses where the suspects have been arrested, and financial crime unit of Turkish police found SAT admission papers, official Exam question booklets and [other materials].

The theft and sale of test materials is lucrative, well-organized and overlooked. It is yet another international, multi-billion dollar dark market of cheating.

Considering how often it occurs, it’s quite rare to see people caught and almost unheard of to see anyone actually arrested. But this is in Turkey. With the exception of India, it simply would not happen many other places.

Harvard to Merge Academic Integrity Office with Other Student Services

According to The Crimson, Harvard University’s student paper, the school will merge several offices and services, including its Office of Academic Integrity.

From the report:

The new office will combine the existing Accessible Education Office, the Housing Office, the Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct, and the Office of the Registrar.

This move seems counter to established and emerging best practices of academic integrity management. It’s hard to know, for example, what visibility, priority and resources academic integrity will have when it shares offices and leadership reporting with the likes of housing and registration.