A friend of mine cheated on an online university entrance exam. What are the consequences?

He was accepted into the university but still has the choice to abandon it. His ghostwriters are not blackmailing him, but they have not received the money yet. The issue is that was prohibited for anybody except the person taking the exam to be present in the room and use anything besides PC. The ghostwriters have photos with his unique test number, name and surname.

What shall he do?

The main consequence will be that, if the university receives information that he cheated on his entrance exam, that record will be shared across universities, effectively barring him from attending major colleges and universities in your country. The most education he can get at the highest level will probably be in the tech voc field where there are no entrance exams required. I am not sure if he can expect to be blackmailed at this point. The companies that use blackmail normally wait a few year in this case, before springing the con on the student.

Why would he even consider "abandoning" it, especially since losing the opportunity to attend that university would the exact worst-case scenario he'd fear, if he were being blackmailed?


First, if he agreed to pay them after they did the work for him, and they fulfilled their end of the agreement, why hasn't he already paid them, as agreed? Second, why would he assume that they're going to blackmail him after they (apparently) did a good enough job on the project to secure the successful outcome that he sought? In all likelihood, the writers haven't even thought of doing that and are just waiting to be paid whatever they rightfully earned for their work.

Blackmailers are always phony "writers" and phony companies that can't actually provide quality work; that's why their whole "business model" is blackmail instead of writing, in the first place. Legitimate writers and companies don't deliver high-quality work and then blackmail their satisfied clients. Blackmailers either provide nothing after being paid in advance or they deliver completely unusable garbage and the blackmail is their response to customers' rightful demands for refunds, to try to make them go away and just eat their losses. In your friend's case, he seems to have received exactly what he hoped to receive, and then used the work successfully, and he hasn't received any blackmail threat, right? So, why would he be considering abandoning his plans to attend the university instead of simply paying his writers?

In almost 20 years on this forum, I've only heard of one or two accusations against any legitimate writer ever threatening or "doxing" a customer, and it was because the customer fraudulently cancelled the payment after the writer delivered exactly what he'd promised to deliver. Legitimate writers hope to convert every satisfied customer into a long-term repeat customer. In fact, a successful admission essay is perfect in that respect, because that's a student who will probably use the same writer all through his university studies; and four years of regular paid work from a happy customer is worth much more to any (real) writer than some lump-sum payment generated through blackmail. Blackmailers don't really write anything and legitimate writers don't blackmail anybody. So, why would your friend want to give writers who, apparently, did good work for him a legitimate reason to be angry and possibly motivate them to retaliate against him for ripping them off by not paying whatever he rightfully owes them, especially when your friend hasn't already been blackmailed?

He is going to pay them later, that's the way they agreed. He is just scared that they will be blackmailing him afterwards because nothing really stops them from doing that . Also?, he won't need them for university studies after exam. Its one time payment

There is no such thing as a one time payment with these blackmailers. I don't understand why he would go through with the deal considering the apprehensions that he already had. He got a gut feeling, a severe warning from his conscience, and yet, he followed through on this academically dangerous plan. If they do blackmail him, he brought it upon himself. Also, is he sure that we will not require their services during his academic career? Using an academic professional can be addicting for most students. That is how we make / made our living. If he is sniffed out by the university, since the entrance exam will be using an IP tracker, then he can kiss his academic studies goodbye. Most schools that use online exams have an IP tracker that is set to report back the location to the university and allows the system to block the "exam taker" from logging into the system. He will definitely get caught once the IP, regardless of their VPN provider, is pinged and reported. Tell your friend not to take what seems to be the easy way because the consequences affect his entire future. Take the test himself and hope that he passes. That is the best way.

You might want to tell him about this forum and direct him to what I just explained in Post # 3 about blackmailers vs. real writers.