Thank you for writing about the Russian essay SEO spam scam. It really helped me understand what was happening with my site.

My website was one of those hacked, resulting in 40 pages of my search engine results being devoted to these crooks. And I can see from my Google Webmaster Tools that about 150 websites are now linked to non-existent academic paper writing-related pages on my site...so they were probably all hacked as well.

Clearly, the security I was using was not up to the task. My sites use both Joomla and Wordpress. Both were hacked. Anyway, I was curious who did it. It turns the attackers are from Russia and / or Ukraine. They redirect hacked pages to their essay mill site: apessay.com. I found they host the site on a Russian server behind a proxy:

Hosted Domains:

apessay.com
a24help.ru
a24-team.ru
edugram.com

Hostname: mail.a24-team.ru (redirected to Gmail)

IP: 193.70.1.15 (OVH and Cloudflare - the notorious hosts known for spam and hack attacks), also related to 85.17.225.+ (Leaseweb - another notorious cloud hosting service)

apessay.com was registered by a Russian domain registrar based in Moscow. It hides behind a Russian WHOIS proxy service.

They appear to be related to: edugram.com, bestwritingessay.com, essaypro.com, essayassist.com and essayservicereviews.com, also hosted on a Russian or cloud server. I also believe they work or are the same as speedypaper.com.

As the other poster mentioned apessay.com is typically the final destination. Users click on a hacked link and are redirected to the site. They block search engines from visiting the site.

If you host a website on a popular platform like Joomla or Wordpress make sure to keep them up to date. Uninstall all plugins you don't use. Install security plugins. Warn your friends from possible attacks. Share your experiences on social media and other helpful communities.

Merged: Example of the malicious redirect to their Apessay site

Here is one example out of hundreds of thousands of websites hacked (or mass created) and redirected to their essay site. User clicks on a hacked link and is automatically redirected to their site. It records site data in the "rid" variable.

I don't know how this site may be related to EssayCoupon, but I saw their advertising here. Recently I have received an alert about Russian hackers related to SpeedyPaper.com that appear to steal content from EssayCoupons and redirect students to their own site. The whole process looks exactly the same as the one I described here: https://essayscam.org/forum/es/apessay-studybay-likely-suspicious-paper-services-6162/. So I believe these are the same people who hack and steal content. Students should be aware and should avoid services that engage in such activities. Proof of the malicious redirection attached below.

The following are top Russian / Ukrainian essay service affiliates or "landing pages" (translated by Google from: seogrot.com/essay-nisha-kakuyu-partnerku-vybrat/). Looking closely, many of them engage in suspicious redirections. You are definitely in a bad neighborhood. What about your hacking and redirecting users - see the animated GIFs above. The evidence is right there to see. You cannot deny it no matter what. Google will not promote them because they violate the basic honesty and legality rules multiple times and more.

edu-profit.com.DND

paperhelp.org
evolutionwriters.com.DND
expert-editing.org
dissertationwritings.com
essaypedia.com
myadmissionsessay.com
de.paperhelp.org

edu-revenue.com

7essays.com
essayoneday.com
expertwriting.org
power-essays.com
superbpaper.com

essayprofit.com

grademiners.org
royalessays.org
finestessay.com
master-essays.net
essay-vendor.co.uk
essayschreiben24.de
dissertationguru.net
assignment-online.co.uk
proessayhelp.com

edu-affiliates.com

essaybox.org
essayfactory.uk
bookwormlab.com

edu-cash.com

bestcustomwriting.com
wiseessays.com
the-essays.com

ap.studybay.com.DND

apessay.com

essaypro.money

essaypro.com
essaypro.club

mraff.biz

gpaessay.com
essayvikings.com
paperial.com

educashion.net

speedypaper.com
papercoach.net
writepaperfor.me

essaypartner.com

paythegeek.com
essayquake.com
getessaytoday.com
justdomyessay.com
pen.camp

student-profit.net

writing-academy.org
buycustomessay.org

edu-money.com

extraessay.com
essay-homework-help.com
handmadewritings.com

affiliateontop.com

essay-on-time.com
essay-wizard.com

bestedudeal.com

essaysdeluxe.com

paper-cash.com

bestqualitypapers.com
bestessays.com.DND

essaytop.club

overnightessay.com

garlic.cash

essayassist.com

Recent forceful security breach of MIT.edu academic website (Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge) by EssayOneDay.com (Edu-Revenue affiliate):

Your services are from Russia. You lie to students about this crucial fact. No student from a US or UK university would knowingly want to do business with services promoting criminal behaviors - hacking is one of them. You know nothing about honesty.

From your Student FAQ:

"StudyBay is an online exchange service, NOT an agency! Writers and Students work together directly, without having to deal with intermediaries. This allows for lesser assignment costs."

From the Writers FAQ / Writer Agreement:

"Commission" means the fee Studybay charges for the Services. Studybay charges the following commission fees:



On the same page you lie to Students about other crucial facts, mainly that:

1. Students have to deal with intermediaries (you).

2. The cost of assignments is thus lower. HOW? How is it lower when you take - on average - 34% commission!?


Here is yet another proof showing how you vandalize other websites, deceive students and search engines by: 1 - stealing copyrighted content (including images), 2 - creating door pages and shady redirects (showing different content to users vs search engines). Whatever you and your comrades do is 100% illegal by Google or Bing or even Yandex standards. And by any honest writing service standards. BTW - why do you even target the "Essay Scam" keywords? You want to show true colors or what.