Threatened with being reported to my school, is there anything I can do?

Few weeks ago I hired a company located in the UK to help me with some assignments, the price was reasonable and the quality of the work was good.

Then all of a sudden one of the writers working for the company contacted me and told me they never paid him and that I should pay him a ridiculous amount of money or else he'll tell my school about my academic dishonesty.

The thing is I (idiotically) never deleted the name of my school from the papers I sent them so they know where I study.

Basically I'm being blackmailed and extorted and for days and days now I've been thinking about all the negatives consequences this may result on.

I could provide the name of the company but I'm afraid this could give away my identity and the harassment may continue if they stumble across this post any time soon.

Has anyone ever been in a situation like this? Do you have any ideas of what I could do, maybe talking to the school about this?

1. Don't contact your school.
2. Don't contact your school.
3. Don't contact your school.

4. If you're going to contact anybody, just contact the company to let them know that their writer is blackmailing you for more money after you already paid the company in full for the project.

5. If the company is in on the scam or doesn't help you, definitely let us know the name of the company.

6. If you want to protect yourself against retaliation by the writer (or company), just don't use the project at all. You haven't violated any school rules until the moment that you actually submit the project for credit. If he actually reports you to your school, there's no action thay can take against you if the project that you actually submit is completely different from any work the writer provided. In the unlikely event that your school does ask you about it, you purchased the work as a model to help you understand how to do the project properly and then you wrote your own project that you submitted for credit.

Are you a UK based student? If you are then there are 2 problems facing you in this situation. The first is possible expulsion due to academic dishonesty and the second, would be repercussions of filing legitimate charges against the company. Either way, if you are a UK based student, you will have to face the consequences of your actions. Do not try to reason with the blackmailer. Come clean with the academic and law enforcement authorities. These defense lines are the only ones available to you, although both could wien your future. Think of it this way, you will be saving future students by allowing yourself to become an example.

Now, if you are not covered by UK law but happened to have hired a UK writer /company then just ignore them. You paid the company and that is Where your client responsibility ends. Other countries do not have strict rules about academic writers for hire and the schools have bigger problems than trying to prove academic dishonesty.

I really appreciate both of you taking the time to read and reply to all this.

My school is not based in the UK but the European Union. I wish I could tell the country (in case it matters) but I just feel a bit paranoid that any detail here could reveal my identity, pissing them off to take action against me, even though the possibilities of them knowing about this forum are slim but you never know. It's just this is the first time this happens to me and the fear of any repercussions this may have on my school has me feeling like this.

Unfortunately, I did submit the assignments they helped me with, few minor changes that I made regarding grammar and punctuation, and that has me even more worried now. Is there anything I can do to protect myself in this situation?

I've spent the last hours reading similar threads here and people say that they are just trying to make you give in to the blackmail but what if they actually do something about it?

I haven't and I just don't want to reply to their messages because I'm afraid that even more interaction between me and them could make things worse and be used against me.

Considering all this, is there a smart way I could handle the situation if my school ever asks me about it? Any help is greatly appreciated and once this is over I would expose this company here, I just hope everything turns out not so bad for me.

There is no need to disclose your actual location to us. All that matters is that you are not in the UK and you are not covered by that particular law. I wish you had done more than just corrected grammar issues in the work you paid for though. Actually rewording a majority of the content would have negated the paid work. Allowing you to reference it as a "model paper" if you were asked about it.


Since you cannot disprove that you submitted the paper for a grade, then you may be brought up on charges of academic misconduct / dishonesty resulting in either suspension or expulsion. It will depend on the way the academic council would view the seriousness of your actions. As a first timer, maybe a suspension will be applied. Nobody can be sure.


Good move. Keep ignoring the writer. Block his email or send it directly to spam. Interaction of any sort will embolden him. He is just testing the waters for now.


Coming clean and admitting guilt is always beat. That is if you are aiming for leniency since you do not have a valid defense. Trying to claim innocence about not knowing that hiring academic writers and submitting the work for a grade was an academic offense will not fly. IMO, the model paper defence would have been the best defense. When cornered, be honest. It should help the outcome of the investigation.

Do not worry though. I sincerely believe it will not come to that. Just continue to ignore the writer. He will eventually quit contacting you.

Well, that's obviously a worse situation, but you still shouldn't pay blackmailers. Send them one last message saying that you already paid for the project and if they contact your school, you will post all of their emails and the details of how they blackmailed you on this forum, so that future Google searches of their company will lead to this information about how they blackmail their customers. Then, immediately block their emails and don't reply to anything else they send you.

Is threatening them like that the best idea? I don't want to add more fuel to the fire and I really don't think they would care at all if I expose them.

I got another message from the writer saying he'll proceed with my school bc I didn't answer, and the company contacted me separately asking me if I received any message but I don't know yet if they are in on the blackmail or if they want to help me (which I doubt at this point).

I have the US bank details they send me to pay them the assignments but I don't know if that could help at all or in what way.

I just feel so dumb for not properly researching the company before I hired them, but I was in desperate need of help with my assignments. I feel overwhelmed that I'll have to deal with my school if they actually contact them bc I'm not sure how I'm going to defend myself but I guess I'll just have to be honest.

Update

I replied to the consultant of the company (not the writer)

Me: what is this about?
Writing Company: The expert who did your assignments has breached our data and now he's asking the copyrights fee of the work. Did you received any text from the expert?

Me: Why are you doing this? I helped you with what you needed
WC: I have nothing to do with this the company didn't paid the expert and now he's threatening every customer of ours to get the copyrights of the work of he'll complain in the university. I'm trying to find a way to get this sorted.

I haven't replied yet. Does this even sound real to you? I mean, the consultant is trying to play innocent but I already got fooled once. I don't know what to reply or if I even should. Where could the conversation go from this? I just want to get over with this and don't engage anymore but I'm just trying to make sure I'm considering all options first.

Should I say something?

And yes, their grammar mistakes on the conversation are just as I got the messages: "Did you received / Didn't paid".

Not that you are asking me but I thought I would throw my ten cents into this latest post of yours. It sounds like you were scammed by the company and writer. They are one and the same. You were dealing with an independent writer who was using a company name as his cover. He is both the writer and the consultant you are speaking with. Now you have let him know that your email is active and that you were just ignoring his previous messages using a fraudulent email account. I believe you have gone from bad to worse in this situation.

If you would like to listen to other advice, I believe it would be best for you to not coordinate any efforts with the writing company at this point. It will serve no purpose. They will ask you to pay the writer a lower fee to stop the blackmail. He is trying to negotiate something with you under false pretenses, a new false alias. Stop dealing with this person and let it go. Ignoring the person is your best defense. Communicating in any way just gives them a new venue to try a new money fleecing tactic on you.

@noted

Honestly, any advice is more than welcome. I'm new to this kind of stuff and the more advice you can give me the better for me. I believe this anxiety I'm feeling is due to being the first time someone blackmails me like that.

They kept on texting me and even called me but I didn't answer, and they offered me to pay less money, just as you said. I'm just going to ignore them and see what happens. I feel like I'm just hoping to be lucky enough for the school to ignore them in case they do email them.

By the way, the writer kind of gave away his identity in something they sent me, and after doing a bit of research I found he's in this forum and someone already complained about him several years back. Too bad I did my research after I engaged with them. I'll post the conversation and his identity when everything calms down, I don't want any more trouble right now as I'm struggling with keeping my peace of mind thanks to all this.

Wow! That is an amazing discovery. If you want things to calm down, then call his bluff. Name him directly in this forum (to warn other students) and link to the reviews that speak of his bad intentions and services. If you are using a pay as you go number, then I suggest changing you number or blocking his number/s as they come in. Never answer unknown numbers. If possible, change your email address. Delete the current email which I hope, is not a school related email account. By naming him, you will be able to push him into a defensive corner or make him stop totally. You have to reverse the tables on him somehow. Cutting him off is a start.

Do not be afraid to fight for yourself. Do not be afraid that the university will find out. They never will. That is the con of these scammers. They play the long game of threats and blackmail hoping to wear you down into giving them what they want. Sometimes, you just have to fight back. This is one time you should consider that.

If it's someone on this forum, you should just name him, immediately.


Agree 100%.

Did they actually contact your school? im going through something similar to your situation!