@formerstudent I'm aware of that. unfortunately, there are multiple issues here. From how easy is to register a UK company without real identification to making fake claims and stealing others work. I mean, on one of the sites in this network, the team's photos are actually HarperCollins top team photos with made up names.
Sure, the best way to not fall for this is to write your own thesis, essay or book. or just do proper research before. some of these sites have thousands of visits per month, and others are in the scam business (registration dates) of almost 10 years..

the full investigation is here: lessdrama.substack.com/p/the-shadow-network-coordinated-scam

@westy
Thanks for sharing your findings-really solid work pulling that all together.
Feel free to DM me if you're up for collaborating or sharing anything you've come across that didn't make it into your post. I pursue this kind of thing in my spare time and might be able to contribute to the investigation-especially when it comes to mapping out the actors behind the scenes.

@noted Your concerns are valid, but I do not represent a competitor or any service at all. It all started with one of my friends being scammed by one of the sites in my report. I spent two days investigating this-and this is the outcome (I posted the full report on the Substack address). I'm passionate about OSINT, and digital services leave trails. I used the report to send complaints to the payment processors (Stripe in this case), the hosting and domain registrars, and I'm waiting for a resolution. As I'm not from the UK, I don't think I can make a formal complaint to the authorities. My goal is to expose them so that others don't get scammed. I also tried posting on Reddit /scams, but they considered I had included too many details (some personal), so I got banned. If you have any other questions regarding my intentions, I'd be happy to answer.

@FreelanceWriter it's about wikiwriters.co.uk.
he wanted to update a wikipedia page. he provided the content written by him, as he found fit and asked for reediting so that it matches wikipedia's guides. they assured him not only would they rewrite, but also update the page themselves. he got ghosted after making the payment.