All of your questions and concerns are fully addressed in several other threads, most of which appear directly below this new thread right on the forum main page; so, you really should just read them first, instead of waiting for new responses to (many of the identical) questions in your new thread. Instead of retyping the same info that I've already provided so many times, here's a partial list of some posts that address your questions and concerns directly:

https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/extortion-help-email-school-6859/#msg87606 (Post #2)
https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/blackmail-leverage-6878/#msg87601 (Post #2)
https://essayscam.org/forum/es/scammers-trying-project-completely-own-6864/#msg87566 (Post #2)
https://essayscam.org/forum/es/scammed-blackmailed-myperfectpaper-6877/#msg87561 (Post #2 & Post #5)
https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/exam-maker-help-6860/#msg87553 (Post #3)
https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/blackmailed-dissertation-company-6865/#msg87549 (Post #2)
https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/getting-blackmails-assignment-writer-6863/#msg87516 (Post #2)


Reducing the plagiarism "percentage" only affects an automated plagiarism scan. In the unlikely case that you're actually accused of cheating by your institution, the "percentage" is all but irrelevant if they have evidence that you submitted work written by anybody else. In fact, even if you wrote the entire project yourself and the plagiarism score is zero, you'd still have the same problem if the only thing they knew you did was pay someone else to do your research for you.


You should use one of the two links I provided (several times) in those other threads to report it to the appropriate authorities corresponding to your location, but that will only help other future potential victims and probably won't do anything as far as helping you recover your money. As I explained several times, absolutely the LAST thing that you (or anybody else in a similar situation) should ever even consider doing is contacting your institution for help. That's like shooting yourself first because a blackmailer is threatening to shoot you. Luckily, their threats are almost always just bluffs and academic institutions will almost always completely ignore any contact from anybody outside the institution purporting to report cheating by a student. There's really only one important exception to that general characterization, but I'm not going to post that publicly, because it would help (only) potential blackmailers.

Not if you never submitted any of their work or used their research in your own submission.

This is obviously made up nonsense. Just ignore it because it's laughably stupid.


If that's true, your have absolutely nothing to worry about. They can't demonstrate that they are in possession of the same work that you submitted and your email history can document that they never actually provided any work.


Perfect. Continue ignoring and blocking any new contact from them. So far, you've
done everything right, except for not checking them out first, before using them.

You and anybody in your position should contact law enforcement through these US/UK links:
ic3.gov/Home/ComplaintChoice
actionfraud.police.uk/how-to-report-fraud

Before you go, please name the company right here to help other students avoid being victimized by them.

You shouldn't necessarily assume that they will actually be able to do that, but I won't go into any greater detail here, publicly, that could, conceivably, assist their efforts to do so. Whatever you do, do not contact your university "pre-emptively," as some other blackmail victims here have considered doing. It sounds like you did the right thing after being threatened, but anybody in the same situation should read:

Post # 3 in this thread: https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/exam-maker-help-6860/#msg87553 and
Post # 79 in this thread: https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/blackmailed-money-assignment-6764/2/#msg87477

It's great that you identified the company that did this to you, because most victims of these kinds of scams who come here asking for advice don't do that. By identifying the company, you're helping other students avoid becoming victims.


Perfect. The first thing that anybody should do in response to any kind of blackmail by essay companies or writers is block them and continue blocking every means by which they contact you, subsequently.


All of that is laughably stupid nonsense. Never respond to any of these threats. The quickest way to get them to leave you alone is to completely ignore them.


Just out of curiosity, how are students finding all of these crooked companies and why are you trusting them and only finding this forum after you get scammed and blackmailed?

Perfect. Don't reply to anything they send you; in fact, don't even read it. That's the quickest way to get them to leave you alone. Any response from you at all is the equivalent of a fish tugging on the lure at the end of a fisherman's line and will only prolong their harassment and result in additional threats. They're bluffing, but that's largely a moot point, anyway, because even if you were to pay them anything, they'd only continue blackmailing you for more money, which is exactly what just happened to another victim who recently started a very similar thread here. Block every means by which they contact you, do not respond at all, regardless of what they threaten to do, and please name the company right here in this thread to help others avoid becoming victims of the same scam.

In the US, report the extortion to the FBI through: ic3.gov/Home/ComplaintChoice and in the UK, report it to actionfraud.police.uk/how-to-report-fraud .

For more details, see these posts in these previous threads:

https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/blackmailed-mill-company-6787/#msg86845 (Posts # 2, 4, & 26)

https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/blackmailed-money-assignment-6764/2/#msg87477 (Post #79)

https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/exam-maker-help-6860/#msg87486 (Post #3)

Ignore them and block every means by which they contact you. In the US, report the extortion to the FBI through: ic3.gov/Home/ComplaintChoice and in the UK, report it to actionfraud.police.uk/how-to-report-fraud . Don't even consider paying them another penny or contacting your school pre-emptively.

Even if they follow through on their threats, and even if they do manage to contact someone who cares, you have the entire email chain to document your situation, as well as the date of the transaction. Since your wrote it yourself, if you're actually questioned, you should be able to show your draft files, your research, your source material, and your notes.

Don't make any changes to your saved files or re-save them, so that you can also demonstrate when those files were last altered and saved, to prove that those files all predate your consultation. There's really nothing they can do to you, based on the details that you've shared. As long as you wrote it yourself, there's no honor code violation just for consulting any third party for general advice or assistance.

Don't stress yourself out by worrying about it and don't waste your time reading their emails or responding to them.

Name the website to help future prospective victims who read this forum or who Google that website.

Hey, PV. Great to see you back here, again.

Students are now routinely getting caught for using AI instead of writing their essays. This really shouldn't be a big surprise, because it's even easier to spot and prove than traditional plagiarism, and without the need to subscribe to any proprietary platforms such as turnitin.com to identify specific sources of plagiarized material. Dedicated AI-detection software is also already available, but it isn't really even necessary to use it. All that a professor has to do is take the same essay prompt that he assigns to students and submit the prompt to some of the most popular AI programs, himself, to see exactly what it's going to generate when students try to use AI for their essays. Another risk that should be obvious to students is that if several students use AI for the same prompt (or for portions of it), they're all going to be submitting very similar essays. Here are just a few recent examples:

College professors are in 'full-on crisis mode' as they catch one 'ChatGPT plagiarist' after another
https://fortune.com/2023/08/10/chatpgt-cheating-plagarism-college-professors-full-on-crisis-mode/

First known student caught using ChatGPT at UK university - here's how they were exposed
https://thetab.com/uk/2023/05/15/first-known-student-caught-using-chatgpt-at-uk-university-heres-how-they-were-exposed-308295

My students are using AI to cheat. Here's why it's a teachable moment
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/18/ai-cheating-teaching-chatgpt-students-college-university

Students Caught Cheating Using AI on Final; Academic Integrity Policy Updated
https://yucommentator.org/2023/01/students-caught-cheating-using-ai-on-final-academic-integrity-policy-updated/

A local teacher caught her students using AI for essays. Now, it's become a learning tool
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/local-news/2023-05-08/a-local-teacher-caught-her-students-using-ai-for-essays-now-its-become-a-learning-tool

Please just read the other related threads right below this one. The advice will always be the same: completely ignore all messages and block every means by which he's contacting you. If you really want to be as careful as possible, just don't submit anything he provided. If there's no submission of his work, it doesn't even matter if he manages to reach anybody who cares, which is unlikely, but not entirely impossible. Whether or not you already submitted it, the advice is still the same: ignore, block, and don't even consider sending him any money; don't even consider contacting anybody at your university, either.

For more details, see these posts in these previous threads:

https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/blackmailed-mill-company-6787/#msg86845 (Posts # 2, 4, & 26)

https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/blackmailed-money-assignment-6764/2/#msg87477 (Post #79)

https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/exam-maker-help-6860/#msg87486 (Post #3)https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/exam-maker-help-6860/#msg87486 (Post #3)

Everything you need to know is right here in Post # 79:
https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/blackmailed-money-assignment-6764/2/#msg87477 (Post #79).

The answers to your future questions are answered right here in Post # 3:
https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/exam-maker-help-6860/#msg87486 (Post #3)

Unfortunately, it's too late to help Kate avoid doing just about everything that nobody should ever do and from doing the exact opposite. You should name the company right here to help warn other potential victims. For the benefit of other students reading this before making those same mistakes:


Ignore and immediateky block anybody who contacts you, totally unsolicited, via social media, offering you services.


There's no conceivable reason that anybody would ever ask you for proof that you submitted the work other than using that information to blackmail you. If someone asks you for something that seems "strange" to you, listen to your gut. Aside from "strange," ask yourself what possible reason(s) someone might want that information from you and what could be done with it.


First, thee are no "fees" involved in "releasing" copyrights. Copyright automatically attaches to the work and belongs to whomever produced the work. Registering the work with the U.S. Copyright isn't necessary, costs money, and would only be done by someone who intends to retain copyright and make it easier to sue and recover damages from copyright infringers. No essay company or writer who intends to transfer copyright to customers would go through the trouble and expense of registering it, first. A writer who really intends to allow his customers to own the copyright doesn't have to do anything (let alone spend any money) for that to happen. The only thing a writer needs to "do" to transfer copyright is communicate to you that it belongs to you (and/or include that term in his website) and then, never do anything to try to find out what his customer chooses to do with the work (or make any use of it, himself, now that the customer owns it). Nobody who demands more money for a "refundable deposit" (for anything) after you've already paid for your project is ever going to refund anything. It's obviously a scam. Just think about what someone is saying to you before you do anything: what possible legitimate reason could they have for needing your $999 only temporarily before refunding it back to you?


Blackmailers are never going to tell you "I'm now blackmailing you to send me money." They're always going to give you some ridiculous story to "justify" their demand. Just think about how ridiculous their justifications are before you pay them: You paid them the additional money they demanded, but because you paid it late, they're going to try to ruin your life unless you pay even more? As I explained in the last paragraph of Post #79 in the thread linked below, there's always going to be some kind of "reason" they give you about why they need more money from you. Sometimes, it's the "cost" of deleting your information from their servers (which costs nothing); other times, it's for "legal fees" to "protect" you from some external threat. The list of "reasons" they'll give is endless. The one thing thay have in common is that they're all obvious nonsense if you just take 15 seconds to think through what they're saying before you send them more money.

https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/blackmailed-money-assignment-6764/2/#msg87477 (Post #79).


Once they know they have someone sufficiently gullible and/or frightened to send them money, they're not going to just stop and go away, content with the first bit of money you sent them. They're always going to try to continue milking you. That's why I've been warning people, over and over, never to send them a penny in response to demands or threats. Immediately block their email and/or # and don't even read anything that comes through from some other email or #. Just continue blocking every new means through which they contact you. That's the quickest way to get them to leave you alone. The moment you send them anything, that will only be the start of more outright threats or excuses about why they need more money from you.


Unfortunately, there's really nothing else you can do after you've already done the exact opposite of everything that one should do. I'm sorry, but that's the truth. You can (and should) report it to law enforcement, but that has nothing to do with your school and won't help you if they're successful in reaching someone at your school who takes them seriously.


I'd take back the $300 and then block them and ignore any future messages that still get through. Human nature being what it is, now that they have that $300, they might be somewhat more likely to try to retaliate if you succeed in recovering that last $300 and possibly more likely to leave you alone and move on to their next victims if you don't recover that last $300. That doesn't necessarily mean that anybody at your school will take them seriously, but they're probably somewhat more likely to try to hurt you if you recover that $300. If it were me, I'd still try to get back whatever I could and name the company here, but those are both decisions for you to make.

Unfortunately, it's already too late for you to do the smartest thing by simply ignoring them and blocking their numbers and emails. All of your other questions are already answered in detail in Post # 79 right here: https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/blackmailed-money-assignment-6764/2/


This is exactly why nobody in your situation should never even consider paying ransom. Once they know they have you scared enough to send them money, they won't stop. Block every means by which they've contacted you and don't even read any further messages before adding any new numbers or emails to your block list. Contact law enforcement through these links:

ic3.gov/Home/ComplaintChoice
actionfraud.police.uk/how-to-report-fraud

Then, just forget about this. Lesson learned and, hopefully, others reading this will take my advice before they pay ransoms.


It doesn't even matter if they actually reach someone at the school who takes them seriously. If you didn't submit the work for academic credit, you haven't violated any academic honor codes. There's no such thing as "attempted cheating." Even in the unlikely event that your school takes it seriously and contacts you, all you'd have to do is tell them the truth about never using the work. At worst, someone might lecture you, informally, about the honor code and maybe outline whatever resources your school provides for writing assistance.


It doesn't matter, for the reason that I just explained. Now that they've already shot the hostage anyway, there's even less reason to continue reading anything they send you. Block and report.

Don't contact anybody except law enforcement. Attorneys in private practice play no role at all in reporting crimes and attorneys in private practice who handle criminal law represent clients accused of crimes. The only thing an attorney will advise you to do is report it to law-enforcement authorities. In the US, report it to the FBI through: ic3.gov/Home/ComplaintChoice and in the UK, report it to: actionfraud.police.uk/how-to-report-fraud .

Contacting your university is the last thing you should ever consider doing. If blackmailers are threatening to contact your university, doing so yourself "pre-emptively" is much like shooting yourself in the knee first, because a blackmailer is threatening to shoot you in your knee unless you pay the ransom. If you admit to your university that you submitted work written by someone else, they'll most likely handle it exactly as they would if you got caught without volunteering the information, yourself. If you never actually submitted the work, you're not in violation of any academic-honesty codes, but universities don't get involved in this kind of problem, at all. They'll simply advise you to contact law enforcement and/or a lawyer, which means you're putting yourself on their "radar" for future reference, for absolutely no reason. They're not going to provide any kind of help, so there's no reason to bring yourself to their attention. Do not even think about contacting your university.


Don't waste your time worrying about it and trying to figure out what's true and/or where thay found any info. Once you're actually being blackmailed, it's too late to do anything other than report it to law enforcement and ignore them and block any means by which they've contacted you. If their threats are bogus, nothing will come of it; and it their threats are real, there's nothing you can do about it, unless you're actually considering paying the ransom, which would be a big mistake. Once they know you're willing to pay them, they're not going to just accept the payment, go away, and leave you alone. They're much more likely to continue threatening you and demanding more money. Where they got their info is a moot point that you shouldn't allow to occupy your time or your mind. Ignore their messages, block all means of contacting you, and report it to law enforcement.


Actually, if you just search the term "blackmail" on this forum, you'll find that these situations are anything but "unique" and that they're actually remarkably similar, except for very minor details. Sometimes, they deliver some horrible and totally unusable work first, and then they come up with some excuse for demanding more money. Other times, they refuse to cancel the order after you try to cancel, or they come up with some excuse for demanding that you pay for the whole project after you order just a short portion of it, or they demand full payment even though their websites say that there's no obligation to pay anything if you don't like the outline (or draft, or whatever) you tried to order before deciding that you don't want them to produce your project. The differences in the minor details of what excuses or justifications they try to use are irrelevant, because the scheme is always the same: They demand money that you don't really owe them for work that you don't want (or siginificantly more money than you agreed to pay for work that you received) and they threaten to reveal your use of their services to your university. Sometimes, they avoid phrasing it like a threat and they present it as "legal fees" they need to help "protect" you from some totally bogus, nonexistent external threat. These minor differences in the particulars are irrelevant.

Welcome to the forum, Sarah. With all due respect, I have to point out that much of your post about AI is incorrect and that some of your points directly contradict some of your other points. No offense intended.


Actually, the most significant limitation of AI writing is, precisely, that it absolutely cannot replicate human thought processes or perform abstract thinking. A student who turns in an AI essay that calls for abstract thinking (and/or whose prompt specifies that the assignment calls for any kind of analysis or original thought and not just facts) will likely receive an F on that assignment. The vast majority of all college and grad-school projects very specifically do require original analyses. That's why my clients who have tried AI programs for their essays quickly came back to me for their subsequent projects.


Exactly. In this context, "presenting well-thought-out ideas in a logical manner" is the exact same thing as abstract thinking.


Exactly. Critical and objective reasoning are synonymous with abstract thinking, which is exactly what AI cannot do.


Actually, calculators can accomplish any mathematical function much better than any human mathematician, not just perform math faster and more efficiently, which calculators do, obviously. That's because AI is perfectly suited to memorizing rules and applying those rules, which is exactly what math is.

The other problems with AI for academic essays are that AI programs typically do nothing but spit out facts and repeat statements found online, but without any distinction at all between statements found in legitimate authoritative sources and statements found in completely illegitimate non-authoritative sources, such as blogs, forums, and random websites that would never be considered acceptable sources for academic essays. Even worse, AI programs typically cite completely irrelevant and/or outdated sources and even make up non-existent sources, known in machine learning vernacular as "hallucinating" sources. They're also notorious for being flagged for plagiarism.

Here's an article titled "ChatGPT and Fake Sources" published jointly by a librarian for Biological Sciences and Global Health and a librarian for Engineering and Computer Science at Duke University:

blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2023/03/09/chatgpt-and-fake-citations/

Here's a book review about Human-Compatible - Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control (Viking 2019) by Stuart Russell, explaining that AI cannot perform abstract reasoning at all: netopia.eu/abstract-intelligence-put-human-values-ai/

As I explained in Posts # 2 & 4, earlier in this thread, that's why it's always a mistake to pay them anything and to continue responding at all to any of their messages. What's the company involved, and just out of curiosity, how did you find those companies in the first place and how is it that so many of you don't check this forum before choosing a source for your essays and only come here after it's too late to help you avoid getting ripped off and/or blackmailed? The OP of this thread ended up using me for her project, but not until first going through this nonsense with her blackmailers. Incidentaly, when people contact me privately about this before posting anything about it publicly, I always advise them against posting about it at all, unless they plan on identifying the company for the benefit of others. Those companies probably do monitor forums such as this one, and when they see your posts, they probably know which of their victims you are, so your public posts only encourage them to continue threatening you, because they realize how scared you are of what they're threatening to do to you, even if you're following my advice about not responding to any of their messages and blocking every number and/or email account from which they manage to continue contacting you.

I'm just going to paste my response to someone who contacted me through my website a couple of days ago asking about an identical situation. If you're that same person, I highly suggest that you just take this advice, get on with your life, and stop worrying about it:

Don't respond at all. Block every means by which they contact you and do not respond at all. The screenshots (etc.) are totally fabricated. Responding only encourages them to continue threatening you. Regardless of what they say, just do not respond at all and block every means by which they contact you. That advice will be the same regardless of whatever else you tell me that they've done or told you...block and ignore.

In response, that person told me that the blackmailers said they'd already contacted the school and showed supposed "proof" in the form of an email to the school and an auto response from the school about being on vacation.

They just looked up the info on the uni site and fabricated it. Think about it: What would be the point of demanding more money if they already shot the hostage? They didn't get a real response about being unavailable for the holidays, either...because they wouldn't have known that would happen when they first sent it, which means they tried to kill the hostage before even negotiating. Ignore their stupidity and just put it out of your mind. If you actually get contacted by your university, let me know before doing anything...but you're not going to be...they're bluffing and just trying to scare you. Just get on with your life and have absolutely no communication with them again and they'll go away. You should BLOCK every number and/or email from which they contact you without even reading their messages.

They'll keep trying, but they'll give up the fastest and just move on to other victims if you just ignore them, completely.

Blackmailers don't have "seasons." There's no such thing as a legitimate writer or essay company that provides good work during the busy (writing) seasons and then shifts to blackmailing "mode" during the slow (writing) season. If their business model is building a clientele of satisfied clients by providing good work, that's what they do year-round. Conversely, if their business model is blackmailing, that's what they do year-round, not just during slow periods.

One thing you can definitely do to reduce any risk of blackmail is to simply use a writer who doesn't mind disclosing (and proving) his full name, location, and contact information before payment, especially in the US. Blackmailers can only succeed to the extent they're anonymous and/or located outside the jurisdiction of reliable law-enforcement authorities.

Nobody located anywhere in the US, for example, could possibly pull off a blackmail scheme against a victim who knows his real identity, because all the victim would have to do is report it to a state DA's office or to the nearest FBI field office.

The same goes for essay companies, except that there have been instances detailed (elsewhere on this forum) where an essay-company writer went rogue and perpetrated blackmail on a client whose project he or she had provided through an essay company.

Block every new number from which they contact you, don't respond, and just continue posting their contact info here.

That as well as actionfraud.police.uk/how-to-report-fraud

I would. If you're in the US, just do it through the FBI right here: ic3.gov/Home/ComplaintChoice

As a career professional writer, I read the very first passage on their website and immediately notice 3 or 4 glaring examples of mistakes and unprofessional sentence structure, word choice, and/or use of idioms. I always wonder whether prospective clients don't read those or just don't notice what I notice. Your posts are actually written much better than their website copy. With the benefit of hindsight, do you think any of that could have been noticable to you, or is it just not as obvious to people who don't write for a living as it is to me?

Those are obviously completely faked emails as far as the supposed identity of their author. If the work wasn't used, you haven't violated any honor codes. Even if your university actually had proof that you placed the order, there's no violation unless or until you submit the work for credit. Chances are, they won't bother contacting the school, but it really wouldn't even matter if they did, for the reason suggested above. If they manage to continue contacting you, just preserve the messages for possible future use against them, but don't respond to them at all and continue blocking them on any new media by which they contact you. Don't even consider contacting your school pre-emptively, as some victims who have posted here considered doing. You should post the name and url of the website here to help others avoid falling into similar situations.

If you received any kind of blackmailing email, do not respond to them or engage, at all. Just block all means by which they've contacted you. Responding in any way only encourages them to continue. If you want to help out other prospective victims, post the name of the company right here.

There's really no such thing as "putting all of your efforts into one company." Writers simply complete whatever projects they take on from however many companies for which they write and from as many private clients as they can find. Writing for a company doesn't impose any kind of limitation on any other sources of work. Typically, freelance writers work for several different companies simultaneously and also try to cultivate their own clientele of private clients.


No company is ever going to just decide, arbitrarily, to fire a writer whose work is good. Even if a writer does get fired for some legitimate reason, no company has any incentive to go out of their way to "smear" any writer's reputation, afterwards. About the only exceptions to that would be where the fired writer initiates such an exchange to retaliate for having been fired by making accusations against the company on a public forum.


Before I managed to become entirely independent, I wrote for the largest group of affiliated legitimate essay companies (then) in existence, from 2003 through 2013. They considered me one of their top writers (out of hundreds), along with fellow forum members ProfessorVerb, ResearchPro, and Pheelyks, frequently offering me substantial bonuses to take on difficult projects and projects for friends and family members of the company owners. We had a very good working relationship, I'm still listed on their roster despite not having taken a company project since 2013, and I still refer projects to them, sometimes. However, in all of that time, we have never had any kind of personal conversations or ever discussed anything about our respective lives not directly related to projects.


Not exactly. First, there's a lot of intense competition among essay-company writers. At some companies, writers have to bid competitively for projects against the bids of other writers. At other companies, desirable projects always get grabbed off the assignment boards within minutes of being posted. When I relied substantially on work from essay companies, I had to have a different laptop set up next to every chair and sofa in my apartment, including the bathroom, precisely because the only way to get the best projects was to refresh the assignment-board screen (literally) about every 30 seconds. That was the main reason that I turned the largest room of my apartment into a fully equipped gym, so that I wouldn't miss out on projects being out of the house for 3 or 4 hours at a time most days of the week.

Second, while it does take some time and effort (and the expense of advertising and website maintenance, etc.) to cultivate a sufficiently large private clientele to rely on exclusively, once you eventually manage to do that, you don't really have to "hunt down" more clients beyond advertising and maintaining an online presence on forums such as this one. New clients are always coming in at approximately the same rate as existing clients complete their studies; so you really need relatively few new clients to maintain your clientele.


This is equally true whether you write for essay companies or only independently, or some combination of both. I know of no essay company that hires writers as employees, or that maintains any kind of on-site office for writers; all of them rely exclusively on freelance writers simply working from home, taking projects from an online assignment board, and uploading completed projects to the system, completely remotely. As a freelance writer, you have no more obligation to take on essay-company projects than to take on projects from direct clients. If anything, I've always felt more of a moral obligation to take work from private clients when it wasn't convenient for me and/or when I hadn't planned on working that day (or that week, etc.) than to take on essay-company projects. If a regular client needs a rush project whose deadline isn't flexible and I have to cancel my non-work plans to accommodate, I'll take the project to avoid leaving the client in the lurch, and I'll also explain that if I have to skip a workout or hockey or any other non-work plans to get it done, I'm going to charge more for that inconvenience, but I'll usually take the project if it's worth it to the client. When those types of situations arise at essay companies, I'd usually just message the client before accepting their request for me, to ask whether the deadline could be extended. If the answer was no, I'd just cancel the request and open the project up for placement on the regular assignment board, which is exactly what would happen automatically, anyway, if requested writers didn't take a project within whatever amount of time the company reserved requested projects for requested writers.

Finally, even that process of "requests" for specific writers at essay companies came with its own headaches that I don't encounter as an independent writer. Before I convinced the company to make requested projects unavailable to other writers, only the honor system prevented other writers from grabbing projects that clearly said "This project is a request for FreelanceWriter." In fact, that's why ProfessorVerb, ResearchPro, Pheelyks, and I got into the habit of taking projects requesting one another off the board and then emailing Admin and the requested writer that we were holding the project for safety until it could be moved to the requested writer's account. We continued to do this even after the company extended the exclusivity period from 3 to 6 hours, because 6 hours still wasn't enough to protect those projects if they happened to come in while we were sleeping or out of the house for the day.


Many of the points made in the OP's post strongly suggest to me that he had very little experience, if any, actually working for any essay companies, but none more so than this particular point. I know of no essay company that pays writers "within a day or two at most" for delivered projects (except for projects that just happen to be submitted a day or two before the regularly scheduled pay day). Almost all essay companies pay writers at the end of the month for all projects delivered that month and a few companies may pay writers every two weeks; none of them pays after each delivered project. Most importantly, with respect to comparing writing for companies and writing independently, independent writers who already actually do this for a living always require full payment in advance, just as all essay companies do. Nobody other than brand new entrants into this kind of work who are very desperate to get their first clients would ever even consider scheduling - much less actually working on or delivering - any project prior to payment in full. That doesn't mean we require clients to order and prepay for large projects in advance, because they can simply order and pay for a smaller section first; but whatever they want to order always needs to be paid up in full at the time the order is placed.


It's true that the summer months are much less busy, but around 2010, I first noticed that work continues to be available, whereas summers used to be almost dead. At that time, almost all of my work still came through essay companies, but that pattern has been the same for me since I became completely independent in 2013, because more and more students seem to be taking summer courses.


If you provide good work and you know what you're doing in terms of clearly communicating expectations and addressing any foreseeable issues with any project in advance, payment processors won't reverse a payment just because a "client doesn't like" your work. For the writer, it's really just a matter of having to prove that the work fulfilled all of the original specs and/or requests to the essay company versus having to prove it to the payment processor, directly.

Typically, (in about 90% of such cases), the writer is in the exact same position whether or not the work comes through an essay company. However, the one situation where there's an advantage to essay-company projects is that once in a while, the company agrees with the writer but offers extra payment to make the changes being demanded by the client, because that's just less of a headache for the company than having to respond to a formal payment dispute and also taking the risk of losing the entire payment.


Actually, essay companies use their messaging systems to prevent their writers and customers from contacting one another directly, for obvious reasons. Those systems work automatically, but wherever essay-company support staff need to get involved, they only slow down the communications process and (often) complicate things by misunderstanding what the writer and customer are saying about any project. They don't know anything about the project until there's an issue with it, at which time, they only know what the original order and specs say and what the writer and customer have communicated to one another.

Most issues between company writers and customers should never require the involvement of support staff in the first place, because anytime the client's complaint and/or request for a revision is justified, good writers will immediately acknowledge and apologize for any mistake and turn around the revision ASAP. Likewise, when customers' complaints are unjustified, an experienced company writer should be able to explain exactly why that's the case in ways that help customers understand why the requested revisions will have to be ordered and paid for as a supplement to the original order. I've always preferred to deal with direct clients and I never made any effort to hide my identity from them, because I know the quality of my work and I'm very careful to avoid any areas of potential misunderstanding about order specs.


You're equally flexible in that regard whether you write for essay companies or independently. As an independent contractor, (which is what all essay-company writers are), you can never be told when to work, when to take time off, or what projects to accept. As a practical matter, I always approached both situations the same, such as anytime a client needed a project when I wasn't necessarily planning on working. Even though I have no obligation to do so, I have always helped out my clients by writing projects even while I was on vacation, rather than leaving them hanging. Part of that is because I never want to lose any regular client, but the other part is that I understand the client's situation. I've had no choice but to refuse overnight rush projects that came in just as I was about to go to sleep or on my way out the door to a hockey game, but I can remember writing a series of essay-company Criminal Justice and Communications projects while vacationing in Florida, a couple of essay-company Cybersecurity projects about honeypots from my father's hospital room shortly before he died in 2007, and sections of a private client's Nursing thesis while on vacation in Europe, including on the flight.


I disclose my full name and address to prospective clients who want to check me out before trusting me with payment for their first projects, and I have no reason not to disclose my name, address, and landline phone number to any of my actual clients. In my opinion, nobody should ever trust any independent writer who uses only an anonymous email and who refuses to disclose his full name and contact information to anybody who has already trusted him with payment for a project. Similarly, I have always, very deliberately, used the exact same ID at every essay company and on every essay-writing forum, and as the username of my direct email address.


For about 10 years, I was substantially dependent on essay companies for assignments, because it takes time and patience to cultivate a sufficiently large private clientele to rely on, exclusively. By the end of 2013, I no longer needed any work from essay companies. When you don't have any direct clients, working for an essay company is really the only way to do this for a living. When you work independently, you have to do everything yourself and there are expenses that you don't have to worry about as a company writer, but that's far outweighed by the upside of not having to share up to 50% of the payment for projects with any company.

Actually, the law being referred to here very specifically does exempt every student from any kind of liability or criminal enforcement. There is no case on record, anywhere, applying this law against any student, and it is absolutely impossible that there ever could be, according to the law, itself. Here's the link to the official guidance published by uk.gov:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1035459/Skills_and_Post-16_Education_Bill_November_2021_policy_notes.pdf

Will this new legislation criminalise students who use these services?
No.The offence is intended to target those providing essay mills commercially - it will not
criminalise students who have used or are using these services. Though the students'
actions do still constitute cheating this is a matter for the institution they are enrolled at to
address. The Department for Education has been working closely with the Ministry of
Justice (MoJ) and the CPS to ensure that students that use essay mills are excluded
from any liability by virtue of this legislation. (p.58)

Submitting the work of others for academic credit has always been prohibited by the honor codes of academic institutions. That's obvious, but none of that has anything to do with this 2022 legislation, either, nor is there any kind of effort to identify and/or report students to their universities. According to their own published guidance, the Department of Education and the Ministry of Justice are doing the exact opposite, by working "to ensure that students that use essay mills are excluded from any liability by virtue of this legislation."

Everything that you should and should not do is detailed in this thread, right here:

https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/online-class-help-center-blackmailing-6760/#msg86575

Nothing about that rule has ever "changed." There are no fewer than 11 essay companies and writers who choose to pay to advertise on this forum. Besides allowing any writer who agrees to the ethical terms required of its advertisers to advertise here, the forum does absolutely nothing to "promote" any of its advertisers. My only self-promotion efforts here consist of posting approximately once or twice a week, and always on the topic of active threads. Of course, I have no choice but also to defend myself against the constant personal attacks and vicious lies posted about me by those whose (real) problem with me is insane jealousy to the point of hateful vindictive rage for the horrible sin of demonstrating through my posts that I write much better than they could ever hope to write. The most vicious and prolific author of those hateful posts is a failed (fired) American writer masquerading as a "retired British" writer pretending that his motivation for being here is his altruistic desire to "protect" British students.


Actually, the requirements of forum advertisers are spelled out right on the main landing page and they reflect, quite specifically, their "care and concern" for students using our services.


There's no such thing as any law that criminalizes the purchase of academic writing by students. The only thing worse and more pathetic than self-appointed forum vigilante rule-enforcers who aren't administrators of the forum whose rules they presume to enforce is self-appointed forum vigilantes who think it's their role to question the decision of a forum to sell advertising space to those who wish to avail ourselves of that opportunity. One need look no further than the student referenced in Post # 52 of this thread or the OP of this very thread to confirm that I provide great work, because he already used me for a 15-page English Literature project and subsequently offered me another 15-pg project just a couple of weeks ago that I had to decline.

The fact that I promote my services on this forum in perfectly permissible ways according to the rules of this forum has nothing to do with the quality of the advice that I provide. Incidentally, the OP of this thread used me for his 15-page English Literature project and contacted me again for another 15-page project about two weeks ago. I had no choice to decline that second project, only because he advised that he wouldn't be able to pay me for it until about a week after delivery. I apologized to him for not being able to do that and briefly shared the same story that I related in the thread linked below in much greater detail. Coincidentally, the OP of that thread also used me several times and left reviews indicating how thrilled she was with the quality of my work.https://essayscam.org/forum/es/writers-doing-research-work-payment-completed-4646/#msg79975

Check for my response in your other thread.

No "authorities" have even the slightest interest in your identity. You're dealing with morons living in mud huts and probably texting you on the one piece of modern technology that they own.


Just continue blocking every number and don't respond at all. Eventually, they'll give up and focus on their other victims. Every time you respond in any way, you're just prolonging their harassment, because the clock on their patience restarts with every single response they receive.


Yes it is. So, why are you still so worried about it? If you never submitted their work, you have nothing to worry about, even if they do actually contact your university.


They have all the time in the world and no other source of real income; so they can spend all day cyber-stalking their victims. Even if 90% of them ignore their threats, all it takes is one frightened victim to cough up a few hundres dollars or GBPs (or whatever) once in a while for them to receive 10x more money than they'd be earning in the same time from any real job available to them. Don't be one of the fools in the other 10% of their "customer" base.

I try.

This is true.


While high prices by themselves are never any kind of guarantee of high quality, cheap prices in this industry almost always correspond to work that is mediocre at best and, quite often, absolutely horrendous. I see work purchased cheaply all the time, because quite a few of my clients end up coming to me only after trying a cheaper provider, and they often send me the essays they received, asking me about "fixing" them. They're always atrocious, unfixable, and completely unusable. Redoing them from scratch, and without using any part of those essays, is usually the only reasonable option.

That's why one of the most important factors for anybody considering using any company or writer for the first time is simply how long that entity has been doing business under the same name and/or email address. Changing names is always a big red flag, just as doing business under only one name for many years is usually a reliable indicator that the entity in question has been providing customers with high-quality work for all of that time.

Most students will just discover for themselves how bad these AI essays really are the first time they try to submit one for a grade.

You're welcome.

Exactly.


https://essayscam.org/forum/gt/online-class-help-center-blackmailing-6760/#msg86575

If students are really intent on cheating, they'll just hire someone to help them in real time and use some other method besides their computers to transmit the exam questions and receive the answers. The only way to stop that would be to require a live camera view of students during exams in addition to IP monitoring and keystroke tracking.

To be fair, I think Tutor Joan was merely contrasting companies and writers who provide their customers with exactly what they promise to provide and exactly what their customers are hoping to receive from them and companies and writers who rip off their customers, whether by delivering terrible and/or plagiarized work or no work, at all, and/or who misuse their customers' information to blackmail them. I don't think Tutor Joan was necessarily commenting on or disputing the fact that those services are prohibited by law in some places. Customers of honest writers aren't being victimized by the fact that those services might be prohibited, even when they completely satisfy their customers' highest hopes and expectations of each transaction.

It's precisely the same distinction as between a reliable honest weed dealer who provides the highest-quality weed, and as much of it as was bargained for vs. a dishonest weed dealer who provides a terrible product, or a bag of oregano, and/or much less weed than was bargained for. Granted, in some jurisdictions, both of them are equally in violation of laws prohibiting the sale of weed; but from their customers' perspective, they're just trying to find a reliable honest weed dealer who can be trusted, and they're trying to avoid getting ripped off by dishonest weed dealers who don't deliver a quality product. The fact that selling high-quality weed might be just as illegal as selling terrible and/or fake weed is a matter between the reliable dealer and the jurisdictional authorities; but that statutory illegality doesn't affect the customers of reliable honest weed dealers whose customers are thrilled with their product and who happily return to them over and over again for many years, and who never have to worry about getting ripped off by their dealers. Precisely the same is true of customers in this industry who simply hope to find one reliable honest writer for all of their writing needs.

On planet Earth, in the vast majority of all nations, because comparatively few actually have any laws prohibiting anything related to academic ghostwriting, as well as in roughly two-thirds of American states, which have no such laws, either.

I don't know that I'd necessarily draw that conclusion, because there might be other explanations for the absence of negative comments, to whatever extent that's the basis of your conclusion.


Aside from the obvious red flag that this represents, it's quite possible that their disappointed customers are deterred by those NDAs.


Regardless of where they're actually located and/or why they choose not to disclose their location more honestly, I'd have a hard time trusting any writer or company that will only provide samples after payment. That's not much different from some (other type of) service professional requiring payment before furnishing professional references, because the whole point of samples and references is to help prospective customers determine whether or not a provider is trustworthy and good, in the first place, as I pointed out earlier in this thread, in 2020. I discourage prospective clients from relying on "samples" except to the extent they just want to see my writing style after they've already decided that they consider me legitimate and honest. If you don't already trust a writer or company, you have no way of knowing that any furnished samples actually represent that writer's (or company's) work.