Blackmailed in the past, Security alerts on SSN + School Decision

Hi, I was blackmailed for sometime by scammers who also approached my university. They made a huge mistake by doing this because my university is now aware and is dealing with me and is ignoring them. I too, have sent them to my spam box and do not open their emails. Today, I got an alert by CreditWise in my bank app that said that my email address was found on the dark web but password was not exposed. I immediately unlinked my email address from that bank account and changed the password on it. Could this be unrelated to the scammers or is it definitely them trying to hack into my email? Should I just delete that entire email address and all data associated with it? Or am I okay after these password changes? Thank you!

No mistake there. The whole plan of the blackmailer was to get you into trouble with your school. Now, you should be fine with the academic case eventually being dismissed/ dropped provided you did not use their paper to get a class credit. This is the main reason why students should always rewrite a bought paper. Using only parts of it as a properly credited reference would have been even better. If is important to erase the paid effort/trail in the final and submitted paper. Can you explain why you think they made a mistake?


Good move. You focus now should be on the academic dishonesty case. Paying them off will not solve anything.


It could be directly related since the attacks happened after the blackmail attempt. These companies are known for selling illegally obtained information over the dark web. I would not put this past them.


Since your private information is already out there, the tendency for identity theft in this case is tremendously high. You would be safer changing all related information including the email address. Use suspected fraud as your reason for email cancellation and mobile number change. You need to be on the record with what happened in case authorities contact you with problems arising from data theft.

For more information about how to protect yourself and other students from academic blackmail in the future, you may read my advice at this link: https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/ways-avoid-academic-blackmail-6767/

I did turn in the paper but with some changes. I say they made a mistake because now they can't blackmail me! My lawyer has a good relationship with the university and has told them about this scam already so the university will not be responding to the scammer. They have also issued an alert to all students telling them about this scam. Do you really think I should change my phone number too? I have it in so many places it feels like a huge huge task haha, but I'd do it for my own safety any day.

Having made changes to the paper will definitely help your defense. You chose a great lawyer in this case. I hope you get positive results in the end. I strongly urge the change in phone numbers as some banking and credit card sectors use the phone number as an identity verifier. The dark web users may even create a cloned sim to redirect numbers and otp to their phone. They have your number and can kill the sim remotely. Google it. It has been done before. I know it is a hassle to do that but your online identity safety should always come first. Since they cannot blackmail you anymore, they will sell your data forever instead. Keeping the number and email keeps it active for their use.

Thank you for your post, that really helps me and other students here. Thank you also for your prompt reply!! I googled this security alert and it said it's common and can happen when any app/service we're connected to has a data breach. Here's the thing, I've blocked them and I don't read their messages anymore but they don't know this. I'm too scared to open my spam box because their language is so threatening and I have other stuff going on in my personal life so I just don't want to deal with the added anxiety. If I cancel my email and change my phone number, won't they get frustrated and start harassing me on LinkedIn or other online profiles like Facebook? Sometimes it feels like it's a good thing that they have this open line of communication that keeps them busy. Kind of like giving a kid a toy phone. What do you think?

@gflowers you have the option to keep the compromised information if you want to. They do not know that you are not reading their emails. Just change your compromised data wherever possible for your safety should they try to hack into your system. Actually, they will stop using your data and emailing you once the data bounces when they try to use it. It becomes worthless to them. As an active account, the value is priceless.

A fake ID or profile can be created using just your name, which can lead to problems for you later on. I am not saying that will happen but there are times when it does. That is why I was suggesting the complete cancelation of the related accounts. That way you have a record of getting your account hacked or attempted hacking if the need to explain arises.

You make a good point, I certainly do not want my name and active email address used. Thank you! I think I'm going to completely delete that email address and inbox.

I hope everything turns out in your favor. Best wishes. Please let us know how your academic case was resolved. I'm hoping for your acquittal 😊

Thank you for your kind wishes! I'll keep everyone here updated. I wonder why they follow through so often...they're losing business 😂

Blackmail case update: school's decision

Hi everyone, I just wanted to provide an update about my blackmail case. The blackmailers reached out to the university TOO EARLY in their process and basically ruined any chances of getting money from me. The university did initiate a case against me however when they read the threatening emails and texts, saw the photoshopped emails, saw the made-up 'case numbers', etc. they decided to drop it because they realized that the scammers would win if the school did anything to me. They want to remove the FEAR out of the student's mind so that they stop paying these scammers. I was let off with a "don't do this again" warning and the school sent out a PSA telling everyone about scams like this targeted at students.

My tips:

1) Maintain your cool. Do not write emails/or call your school in an attempt to tell your side of the story, let the school approach you (if they even do that).

2) Leverage your school student advocacy group and legal team for students

3) DO NOT PAY THE BLACKMAILER

4) Keep evidence of chats, threatening messages to show your school. High chances are they will be more concerned about your safety and mental health.

5) Use forums like this to find legitimate writers

Feel free to reply to this post if you are in a similar situation and need guidance. I cannot guarantee a similar outcome but I'll try my best to provide a perspective in light of my recent experience

P.S: Another thing that helped me and this is entirely a personal decision. I told everyone I was scared of telling about this: my parents, friends, employer. I had heard that scammers sometimes also reach out to relatives, especially if it is a younger person like me who is dependent on parents. Once you tell everyone, the scammer just gains more enemies. I know this can be hard but I choose to look at it as a character-strengthening situation and just did it!

Wow! Thanks for the update. I knew that it would be a positive result in your favor. Congratulations on beating the bully. Your post will definitely help other students in a similar situation to yours. You did everything right. It could actually be a template for students regarding how to deal with academic blackmail in the future. This is a hard and memorable lesson learned for you and I am sure that you will be more careful when hiring a writer or company in the future.

A word of caution though. While this forum is a source of mostly legitimate writers, there are some scammers that show up once in a while. They are the sort that reach out to the students privately to sell their services. It is always better for you to approach the writer you find here based upon your personal assessment of the writer. So whether the writer advertises here or not, use caution when dealing with them. Investigate the background of the writer before hiring.

Keep your guard up. Trust not a single writer found through any source until that writer has proven himself to you, regardless of the number of reviews that writer may have at this forum. Always be cautious, it will pay off for you in the end.

Likewise, don't trust any essay company, whether it claims to be based in the US or the UK, regardless of the reviews it posts on its own page, its promises that all projects are always "assigned" to the perfect "specialist" writer with an advanced degree in the academic area of every project, and regardless of having perpetual banner ads at the top of every page of any forum. Be especially wary of forum participants who seem to post much more here than all other active posters combined, despite claiming that they no longer have any financial interests in this industry or in any of the essay companies that they recommend, or vouch for, or any company about which any of these posters indicates that he know exactly how they do business. Chances are always much higher that anybody here who posts often and passionately hasn't "retired" from working in this industry. Most likely, anybody who posts a lot here is either (currently) employed by an essay company in some capacity that includes a financial interest of one kind or another with any company he recommends or vouches for, and from which he is hardly "retired." There are no active posters on this forum who don't derive income from writing essays (or handling other tasks) for an essay company, except for students and independent writers. If a person's autobiographical references (and/or his responses after being confronted with the obvious evidence of his previous dozen forum IDs) sound implausible and/or if a person's stated reason(s) for posting here sounds less than truthful, it probably is. Other posters who should not be trusted are prolific posters who never provide any real information about exactly what companies they've worked for and/or owned in any of their thousands of posts on this forum, and/or exactly what they're doing for work now "instead" of working in this industry.

Term #5 of this forum's Disclaimer & TOS specifically warns, as follows: "Most users may have commercial reasons for participating in the EssayScam Forum. Any and all information posted on the forum should be considered as a personal and subjective opinion or 'alleged fact' only" essayscam.org/disclaimer-privacy/

As you probably know handing in the paper as your own is cheating. Just as well that you altered it.
I'm not sure where you are studying although my guess is that you are not studying at a British/UK university but I could be wrong.

There are active writers on this forum who do not care if you hand in the work as your own. In the UK and in some American states it is illegal to write essays for students. You need to be very careful and never accept help from a writer who contacts you directly from this forum offering their services which may be illegal.

Be even more wary of doing business with any company whose url purposely implies that it's a "UK" company, but whose disclosure page indicates that it's actually registered somewhere completely different, such as in the United Arab Emirates, for example, and whose UAE address is really nothing but a POB. Always read the TOS and the small-print disclosures and disclaimers on the websites of any essay company before deciding to do do business with them, because many of them strictly prohibit you from doing anything besides "reading," "studying," and "citing" their projects in your own writing. Some of their TOS actually say that they reserve the right to contact your school to "protect" their copyright if they suspect that you violated their TOS. Never waste your money on work whose copyright a company or writer refuses to allow you to own, exclusively. If you paid for it, you, and you alone, should own every word of it. Whatever you, as an adult, choose to do with work that you paid for in full and now own should be nobody else's business but yours.

Thank you all for your replies and advice :) I'm so glad I found this forum.

@gflowers
You are most welcome and @noted has provided very useful and reliable advice.
The essay company being referenced immediately above is legitimate, abides by UK law and is totally transparent about its registered office location. Its writers are graduates with appropriate UK qualifications who are only allowed to write on topcs in which they graduated. It does not permit cheating and you should avoid any writer who is content for you to hand in an essay written by him as your own.

This is the company to which the above poster is referring: https://essayscam.org/forum/es/ukessays-nowhere-near-specified-standard-155/

Obviously, nobody whose real motivation for posting on this forum is to "protect" students would ever recommend any company with this kind of history documented on this forum. Only someone pretending to be a disinterested "retired" writer who really still writes for such a company would continue to promote or vouch for it here. Anything and everything he posts about what companies to trust and (especially) which of his company's direct competitors not to trust should be considered in that light. Keep in mind that this is the same person who has been screaming and carrying on for almost a year about how nobody should trust a writer with degrees only in Law, Psychology, and History to write any project in Nursing or Business, or Philosophy, or any other area outside of his own degree areas.

At long last you get it. No you shouldn't be writing at subjects outside your qualifications. In addition you have refused to disclose the level of your Psychology and History degrees? Probably because they are only at Associate level if indeed you have any degrees whatsoever.

The link and excerpts you refer to date back to 2008. Yet you always criticise @noted for replying to posts dating back to 2021.
Dilyan says "One of my friends writes for ukessays - it is interesting to see how they do business:" This is tittle tattle and very easy to fabricate. A friend says etc...

One of my ex students has says she wouldn't touch you with a barge pole but I don't expect you to believe it. As the lady at UKEssays said, such derogatory posts are typically from disgruntled ex writers.

As you lobbed in some old testimonials (2009) allow me to introduce some more recent ones from 2022.
UKEssays

9 months ago
Essay Writing Service
The service is good. It help me to understand my assignment
Rebecca (Verified Customer)

Essay Writing Service
You brought my vision to life! Glossy and distinct writing!
Chelsy (Verified Customer)

Essay Writing Service
THE QUALITY OF WORK PRODUCED IS EXCEPTIONAL AND ALWAYS ON TIME.
Steve (Verified Customer)

Essay Writing Service
Ordered for a 7 day turnaround, was delivered on time, with brilliant references, and achieved a higher mark than expected. Would definitely recommend, especially if your looking for native English speakers and writers for UK Unis and colleges. Emma (Verified Customer)

Essay Writing Service
ALWAYS ON TIME AND THE GREATEST WRITERS IN TERMS OF QUALITY WORK
Steve (Verified Customer

Dishonest as always, deliberately omitting parts of quotes to misrepresent what they actually said to imply that they meant the exact opposite:

This


was preceded by this:

I was being facetious and your quotation is available above anyway. I guess that was lost on you.
"Dishonest as ever" accurately describes someone who deliberately disobeys laws pertaining to essay writing.