Foreign essay writing company representatives are not fooling anyone when they...

- Use full English (FAKE) names, for example: John Martins, when their "representative" posts something online
- Post FAKE founded date of their fraudulent websites
- Post FAKE positive reviews of their website (and negative reviews of their competition websites)
- Post US/UK toll-free or fabricated local phone numbers which can be bought by any fraudster online
- Claim they operate a company (owning a scamming website != owning a company)
- Claim their website is associated with legit organizations
- Claim they work with native English speakers (when in fact they only hire ESL writers)
- Claim their writers have "advanced degrees" when in fact most of them are foreign high-school or college students (at best)
- Claim their customer satisfaction ratio is "95%" or more
- Claim their websites are 100% secure (by uploading FAKE "secure" logos and graphics)
- Claim their customers receive something "For Free" and save $x
- Claim their customers can receive a custom-written 50-page paper in 12 hrs or even less
- Claim they never resell their essays (when in fact they resell them sooner than later)

Anything else?

which website scammed you?

A couple from the DND list (Ukrainians). I wouldn't have a problem if they were straightforward with me about their real operations before I ordered. But that was not the case.

I think forums like this is great for exposing these websites that rip people off.

I've just encountered a writing sample of a foreign 'essay writing expert' (this time featured by researchpaperking.com). If you read it carefully.. it's nothing but pointless, error-ridden, grammatically-incorrect, and confusing ramble, isn't it.



And the following is a proof of an employment fraud attempt by a foreign freelance writer / scammer from an uncivilized country. He posted an ad seeking a "US resident who can do a phone interview for an essay mill." He added: "I'll guide you on what questions will be asked."

So the 'writer' tried to get hired by a legitimate US-based company that only employs US-based persons and interviews them over the phone. To get around the 'US residency' (and English language speaking proficiency) requirement, the scammer hopes to find a partner in crime to lie about his true location and skills.

While we writers know how to spot the scam the minute we set our eyes on it, the students aren't really aware of these con representations. That's why the students still end up contracting their work with these companies. It is a good faith investment in the promises and assurances of what they believe to be authentic American or UK academic writing companies. I can't blame them for being fooled. While the blurbs are dead giveaways, the students are often pressed for time so they don't bother to do due diligence when dealing with companies. Their sites are more often than not, set on the dollar sign cost for the paper. They tend to ignore all other information to the detriment of their order. There is little we can do beyond asking them to be careful and not to take everything at face value. Their gullibility and lack of experience in dealing with the on the level companies and writers are what always results in their being fooled by these companies and writers.

Apparently, they're actually still fooling quite a lot of customers, especially those who are new to this industry, based on how often my new clients report first having been ripped off by one (or more than one) of them before finding me. Typically, they don't seem to realize that this industry is dominated by the lowest-quality providers and outright scams until after their first experience with one or two of them. Only then do they start searching the term "scam" and eventually stumble onto this forum. Some of those companies do a fairly good job of presenting themselves as legitimate on their websites, especially to consumers who have grown up routinely ordering goods and services online. The others have such atrociously-written web copy that it's amazing to me that there are American or British students who don't realize there's just no way those companies could possibly provide good work. Other times (approximately once a month), I get emails from students who asked me for a quote a few weeks earlier but then decided to try one of these types of companies, attracted by what seemed like a bargain price. They end up paying me at least as much as my original quote that they previously declined in addition to whatever they already wasted trying to save money with those kinds of companies.

For very many of these 'companies', this 'presenting themselves' is the only thing they invest in, and heavily at that


Exactly. The average new student determining whether to engage the services of an unknown online writing company probably makes up his/her mind in under 3 mins on visiting the website, mostly relying on aesthetics and ignoring the crucial telltale details

They also skew customers' expectations about reasonable pricing, because they can make a very nice profit even at ridiculously low prices, since they don't actually have to worry about producing the work for which they're paid. Their "work" on projects is over once they collect the payments.

"You take a $200 case of booze and sell it for $100. It doesn't matter; it's all profit."
-Henry Hill (Goodfellas)

This is especially true. They're not particularly looking into attaining returning clients. Rather, these people are focused on gaining as much income as possible. Once it all falls down, they can just slowly branch into a different site and build from there again.

Actually, I'd bet that the average new client spends a lot more time than that on the decision; but I'd agree that they rely on aesthetics and that they miss all of the telltale indications of scams and bad ESL writing all over those types of websites. New customers probably choose their first essay company based on a combination of aesthetics and price, which is precisely why those companies invest heavily in flashy websites and set their prices substantially lower than their qualified legitimate competitors who actually provide the kind of work customers expect from this industry.

- Claim to have been in business for 50 years then claims to be only a decade old in their "about" section. They can never get their establishment date straight.

- Use paid video testimonies to increase confidence in their final product
- Pretend to write independent blogs that have advertising which immediately directs to the writing company
- Unleashes company representatives on the ES forums to post glowing reviews of their services
- Posts "informative" articles meant to tear down the competition.