Blackmailed and Scammed after using Swahili / Kenyan writer. "Pay or get exposed"

Hello everyone, this is my first desperate post.

Last night I've been contacted by the individual who was helping me with my assignments, giving me an option to pay $500 until Friday or he will expose everything to my university.

At this moment I realize the mistake that I have done, and I understand that there might be nothing that could save me if the report is proceeded to my educational institution.

The payments have been transferred through Paypal.
As I am not feeling very well at this moment, I was wondering if someone involved in a similar situation managed to clear things out without paying the blackmailer ?!

Sorry for my bad English, I cannot find my words properly since last night.

To give you any helpful advice, I'd need to know whether or not you've already submitted the project for credit.

The projects were submitted and credit was received as well.

I was/am in a very dark place and his promises allowed my naive side to rely on him. That shouldn't be an excuse, I am an idiot.

I have his paypal contact(email,name) /chat blackmails and from what I know contacting cyber crime can identify bank accounts through PayPal.

If you've already submitted it, it's too late to do the safest thing and just not use it. It's a tough situation, because if you pay blackmail, there's a good chance he'll just continue extorting you for more money. If you don't, there's a good chance he'll be vindictive and expose you.

Does the writer have a website or any history linked to his name and email? (Google both.) How did you find this person? Does he have any history on whatever platform you found him? If it's just an email address, you can't really threaten to publicize his practices because he'll just create another email. About the only leverage you might have is threatening to share everything with PayPal to get his account closed and also pursue a full refund of the money he already received. How did you find this person and what made you think he was trustworthy? If he has nothing but an email address that can be changed, about the only thing you can threaten him with is having to create a new PayPal account if you get his current account closed. If you have the money, you might even consider "negotiating" to pay less in conjunction with telling him that if he takes the $200 (or whatever), there won't be any subsequent payments and that if he bothers you again, you'll have no choice but to focus your efforts on getting his PayPal account closed.

It's a frustrating situation, but if you provided too much personal info to some anonymous criminal scammer, you might have no choice but to weigh that relatively small cost against the costs associated with the consequences of his reporting you to your school. In anticipation of some bad advice that some people have doled out here before: If he can identify the dean of students and/or your professor, it really won't matter to them that he's a stranger or a criminal. If he provides them with convincing emails and (especially) the exact same essay content as the essay you actually submitted, that will probably be enough to cause you much more trouble than the value of $200 or even $500. This thread should provide a warning to anybody considering doing business with any writer who doesn't have a very long history on a platform such as this forum and a uniquely-identifying email and forum ID associated with a good reputation going back many years to care about maintaining.

Here's the thing. The best thing to do is call the blackmailer's bluff. Ignore him. Don't pay this extortionist. You know what you did, you know of the possible consequences of your actions. You did this with your eyes open. Now is not the time to grow a conscience. Your only choices are as follows:

1. Pay the amount asked and hope the blackmailer goes away. Note: He won't. You just gave him ammo to continue blackmailing you for years to come.

2. Don't pay and see if he actually has enough information on you to blow your academic dishonesty sky-high. Which I doubt. Then again, I am not aware of the kind of personal data he required when you placed your order that might allow him to end your academic career and professional future in one blow.

Usually, these people are just out there looking for gullible people to victimize. I highly suggest going for option 2. There's a high chance he isn't capable of making good on this threat and your academic dishonesty secret will remain just that, a secret. If you pay, then make sure you have the kind of money in your account that you can just throw away each and every time he harasses and threatens you. Don't be a fool twice over.

I agree with Cite. Don't believe these extortionists. It's just not worth their effort to try to "ruin" your academic career. They will find other victims. In the meantime, I'm glad you've found a forum like this one that has legitimate writers who don't resort to those quasi-gangster tactics.