Student at PAC-10 School Blackmailed by Cheating Site

Plus, international quick bites. Plus, FIU says it's "vigilant" about academic integrity.

Issue 48

Myth No More - Student Blackmailed by Cheating Provider

For years, I thought the warnings that a student could be, would be blackmailed by a cheating company were urban legend (See Issue 19).

But now I know it happens.

Martha, a fourth-year student at a PAC-10 school, was blackmailed by the person she hired to do coursework for one of her classes - explicitly and directly threatened with exposure for cheating if she did not pay $1,000 in 24 hours. She sent me the entire e-mail chain.

[note: Martha is not her real name and I was going to the name the school but decided not to, since some of the details of her story might be traceable.]

Martha hired a cheating provider - a “tutor” company - in July of this year. She agreed to pay $200 for some course or exam work. After the work was done, Martha had a question about one of the answers that did not seem right. When she asked for it to be reviewed, the “tutor” sent Martha her own full name, the name and campus of the school where she was enrolled and other personal information and wrote:

You will send $1000 through the paypal l provide you with, or I will write to your school and provide all details about your cheating, including access to this pseudo email and [name of cheating tutor company].

I'm giving you 24 hours.

Martha replied that she was a full-time student without consistent or significant income and an undocumented immigrant on a scholarship. She wrote:

The most I can offer you is 200 more and even then, the next time I will come into money is at the beginning of the fall

The cheating provider responded:

O.k, given your predicament, send 200 and you won't hear from me ever again

Martha again:

Okay what is your paypal? And how do I know you won't send anything to the school? I really can't lose my education or scholarship.

But it wasn’t that easy. Martha sent the $200 in blackmail money. But the person on the other end, in Kenya, said they never received it. Martha sent another $200. What followed was ten straight days of declined transactions, blocked accounts, PayPal inquires and different cash apps. The Kenyan cheater suggested Martha send money to a friend’s account.

When the blackmailer finally got their $200, they demanded $400.

By the middle of August, Martha wrote:

we agreed on 200. I have bills to pay and an education to pay for. I told you I could only afford 200. Please don’t ask me for more

The blackmailer:

I said you send the other $200 then we're done

And

send it or I'll write an email to your school

And

send the other 200

Martha repeats her position:

If I had a job and wasn’t relying on other peoples money maybe I could but I’m not earning an income and I don’t have any family here. If I don’t pay rent, I don’t have a home and there’s no one that can help me. Like I said, I got here through scholarship and I don’t have the flexibility

But it continues:

look, send the $200 and I'll delete your email

Finally, Martha gives up and writes:

Since you are asking for more money, you can't stick to your word and I have no way of knowing if you are going to keep asking me for money after I send another 200 so I do not plan on sending any more money.

To which, the cheating provider writes:

Anyway, we're done. I'll not contact you again. All the best

In the end, Martha was out $400 and, more than likely, a few sleepless nights. She also received a 78% on the assignment she paid for.

Yes, Martha cheated. So, the chain of events starts with her. Still, you have to wonder how a school let one of their students fall into this trap. Honestly, I feel for her.

Martha’s experience should underscore the dangers of doing business with people who are, by their very business offerings, cheats and liars. It should also underscore that schools and policy institutions should invest more in getting between these dangerous people and their students.

Illinois and Oregon Did Not Drop Remote Proctoring After All

Remember earlier this year when reporting came out that the University of Illinois (see Issue 3) and the University of Oregon (see Issue 23) were halting the practice of remote exam proctoring?

I do.

At the time, I wrote that this was incorrect. It was bad, misunderstood reporting. The schools said no such thing. Anyway, both schools have recently signed or renewed remote proctoring agreements with major providers.

Quick on Update CBS and Florida International University

After that CBS News story that incidentally exposed misconduct at Florida International University (See Issue 47), over at Forbes I wrote about the odd and self-defeating inclination of schools to not talk about academic misconduct. I used FIU, which had not responded to questions, as an example.

After that Forbes story was published, Maydel Santana, Associate Vice President at FIU, provided the following statement:

At FIU we are vigilant about academic integrity and engage several cheating detection technology tools including Turnitin, Honorlock and Proctor U. We also investigate every instance of reported misconduct. We continue to work with students and faculty to set integrity expectations and hold them responsible when those expectations are not met.

International Quick Bites

• Officials in Pakistan said they nabbed 215 students trying to take exams “with unfair means.” That does not count the 46 people who tried to take the exams for other people.

• In Senegal, a man was busted trying to take university exams for his girlfriend, dressing, “complete with make-up, headscarf, bra and even earrings.” Funny thing, for the first three days of exams, no one noticed. A proctor caught him on the fourth day when they “noticed something off about his appearance.”

• In India, officials have arrested “41 doctors for allegedly submitting fake postgraduate degrees … in order to obtain licence to practice medicine.” India’s regional ministry for medicine says, “every year it comes across 40 to 50 such cases.”

In the next “The Cheat Sheet” - New research on anti-cheating laws. Plus, with this issue being so long, I have kick that bizarre, inaccurate, insular discussion on academic integrity by Inside Higher Ed to next week. Plus, more cheating.

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