I think they should not. Universities must have a form of AI-writing detection (I know they have it but it may still not be efficient). Otherwise, students go the easiest route and plagiarize whatever they can.

I am not sure I would call it a scam, but I have heard that some colleges and universities do not immediately flag AI-generated papers. Instead, they wait until the end of the term to verify whether the work was written by a human or a bot. If that turns out to be true, a failing grade for the entire term is a real possibility.

As I've mentioned, whenever you touch AI to generate a paper, everything gets recorded. The data is still not immediately available at universities, but it will be. Professors (or I should say - AI assistants) can scan your past papers and detect AI plagiarism.

You're probably wasting your time. The same AI that writes your paper can now detect their own writing, so students are not safe if they think they can get away with robot research. In addition, all generated output / papers are now saved in databases and can easily be checked against submitted academic papers by AI anti-plagiarism tools.

A large proportion of online essay-writing services operate from low‑cost overseas locations and can involve misleading or unethical practices, so students should treat many of them with caution. Only a minority appear to be transparently run, well‑regulated companies with clear ownership and verifiable addresses in places such as the US or UK.

One example is UKEssays, which operated from the UK for many years but now trades through a suspicious company registered in the United Arab Emirates while still using "UK" in its branding. The company states that the move was made to improve its international presence, but this relocation means it now competes more directly with other international providers from Pakistan or Ukraine rather than being clearly based in the UK.

Posters here have the most knowledge on how to deal with it, so feel free to ask questions.

So the scam service you used relied on AI to generate your essay and foolishly assumed that the AI detection tools now widely used by colleges and universities wouldn't catch it? What did your tutor have to say about it?

Colleges and universities are increasingly adopting sophisticated methods to detect AI-generated content in student submissions. While tools like Turnitin have long been staples in academic integrity, they are now being enhanced with advanced AI detection features, rather than being universally abandoned. Institutions are utilizing a combination of established platforms and newer, specialized AI detection services.

Many free and freemium AI detection websites are available, offering to distinguish between human and AI-generated text. Examples of such tools include:

- GPTZero: Known for its focus on academic prose and offering detailed analysis, including sentence-level highlighting of AI-generated text. It provides free basic access with premium options for more extensive use, and integrates with learning management systems.

- Originality.ai: This platform is recognized for its high accuracy in detecting AI-written content and also offers plagiarism checking.

- Scribbr.com: Provides an AI detector that offers paragraph-level feedback and supports multiple languages.

- ZeroGPT.com: This tool gives a percentage score indicating the likelihood of AI authorship and highlights potentially AI-generated sections.

While some universities may provide access to the premium versions of such software as part of their institutional subscriptions, it is not a universal guarantee of free access to all premium features for all students.

That definitely confirms it's a scam. I hope students will be cautious about using these suspicious services.

Great research! You've uncovered one hornet's nest, but there are many more, particularly from countries like Ukraine and India. Students need to be cautious not to fall for the trap of ordering an essay from a "British" service, only to find that it's actually being completed (if they're lucky) by someone without an advanced academic degree from abroad.

I suspect that many students simply copy and paste AI-generated content and submit it as their own. However, I read that Turnitin and other platforms are nearing the completion of tools designed to detect AI-written text, marking it as plagiarized. It seems like this will roll out in the second half of the year. It would be funny when teachers run the new software on old papers ;)

I agree, @Cite. On platforms like Fiverr and its counterparts, it's possible that up to 90% of "freelance writers" are non-native English speakers, even though their accounts may display UK or US flags.

I haven't noticed any trolls for years now, but there are still some notorious spammers.

I think Paypal is done. They charge how much, 3-4% per transaction when a Certificate Deposit in your bank pays 4% per year. It is a rip-off and the new generation of buyers found much more economical ways of sending/receiving money online.

At first, AI writing appears eloquent, but it has no substance. It can write 10 pages about nothing. I hear that professors are catching up with this nonsense. Google is now reverting their search engine model after they realized the auto-generated junk that no human wants to read has polluted their search results.

It is an extortion scam. A real legal office would never send just an email if they were serious.

A letter - do you mean by postal mail sent to your residence address or just an email?

If we talk about Britaineducopyrights.co.uk, it shows strong signs of being a scam. The domain was only registered on June 1, 2023, roughly coinciding with the implementation of the British "anti-plagiarism" law. Legitimate legal or government institutions typically wouldn't use a .co.uk domain. This website likely aims to extort money from individuals, businesses, and organizations. It's safe to report it to the appropriate British authorities and block their emails.

Can you describe any negative experiences you've had? It seems you're competing with them for business, and you are not a student; am I right?

These days, African scammers use AI text generators to create text content; as above.

It's possible, but most addresses posted on these websites are fake. For example,

10 Main Street
New York, NY

The legal language tends to be very broad for a reason. I wonder if by "essay mills" they also mean authors for hire / freelancers?

Good points. Regarding Academon, it was a very popular site back then.

It'd interesting to know why the pre-written market has "died." Not everything is published freely online.

It appears that freelance writers are more likely to extort students than writing services. Is there a reason for this trend? Regardless, the advice remains consistent: don't give in to extortion attempts. Ignore threats and protect yourself.

I guess AI can do it though. One thing is sure - AI doesn't make grammar/spelling mistakes. It may write nonsense, but nonetheless its writing is (technically) error-free.

Sorry, by "they" I meant "them" in general (ie. unscrupulous essay services).

They keep doing it even today :(

It seems like companies like Google or Microsoft might be undermining themselves by releasing AI text generation tools. Corporations are now using AI to create content that feels inauthentic and robotic. Ironically, now Google's own AI seems to be favoring forums and social media in rankings, which are known for human-generated content. It's like they're going full circle :) Personally, I pretty much avoid reading all kinds of robot-written text (getting better and better at detecting it).

What kind of service did you order from them?

Do you know where they send emails from? Do you have their IP? I don't see you posting any identifiable information so it doesn't matter at this point. Do they use an account associated with the sites or just a random gmail/outlook (totally anonymous) account? It seems some freelancing scammer is trying to mess with you and I doubt they use their business address to contact you.

Imagine a guy walking into a bank and telling the clerk that he knows for a fact that one of their patrons stole money from him. The guy essentially wants the bank to become his free legal representative, even though he has no association with the institution. As long as the bank's patron hasn't stolen anything, I doubt they would want to work for the random guy / scammer. Their answer would be: "call the police or have your own lawyer formally contact us, so that we may look into it."

Right; that's why, I doubt anyone from the university would take such emails seriously. It's like replying to a lottery scam email. Besides, it would require a formal investigation and considering students are the university's "patrons" it would take a lot of moving parts to get to the bottom of it, so they just ignore it.

Your anonymous username (Baba84) is anonymous enough for you to keep it private. Just make sure you don't include your real name or contact information and it should work just fine.

Looking at the screenshot:

1. The scammer provided a fake name (Neil Taylor). I'm pretty sure the scammer is not British.

2. I'd safely assume that they (the university - if it was sent there) just blocked the email and will do nothing. The email sounds like extortion. Or maybe they'll take the bait to find out the real data of the scammer and report him to the police for harassment, extortion, giving false information, and blackmail.

First of all, how would you know they are from the UK? Second, what do they want from you, could you paste their message (removing your details).

Fake TrustPilot and other reviews, it's 100% not from the UK. Closer to India or Pakistan.

Choose a service that sells copyrights along with the dissertation.

80% of "companies" that advertise to be "UK-based" are either from Kenya, India, Pakistan, or Ukraine. The more "UK" is displayed on their page, the more chances they are not from the UK. I'd suggest working with companies that have existed for at least 1 or 2 decades (there are still a few left).

You're dealing with African fraudsters, even though Ukrainians are equally skillful.

None of them has ever visited Europe, unless on Google maps. That's why, they use apps like Whatsup to try to hide their location, but if the area code is 254, it's Kenya. Check for other similar codes.

The question is, why did your daughter choose to work with the scammers?

Did she find them on fake review websites like Sitejabber, Google Reviews, Facebook, or Trustpilot? 95% of these reviews have been written by the scammers purporting to be students, they are totally fake testimonials.

After having read dozens of such experiences, why don't you stick with established freelancers or services that have existed for two decades or more? If a service has 100 positive reviews posted in the last few years, it is a scam.

No real student is going to post a positive review unless he is paid for it. If a company has 90% of positive reviews and there are dozens or hundreds of them, stay away! It is fraud - guaranteed.