Sorry for you situation although it would be advisable to research a little bit before transferring 850GBP to an online entity.

Scammers/fraudsters take time before they take their 'game' to potential victims; and they really do sound nice and promising........until, of course, when they rip off the victim.

Probably, this thief is now readying new websites, new tricks, new writers (read victims) and new strategies. I guess a lot of online transactions inherently carry risks.

That is a very general question; i guess it depends with the country you are talking about.
Out of curiosity- are you planning to establish an essay site in the US while you are not physically in the country?

Any business entity registered in the US must pay taxes to the US government.

Registering a company in country A while you are in country B doesn't really mean much to the customer in country A in case he is defrauded. The much the US government can do is to simply confiscate the assets of the company (like websites) but after that the law enforcers can't help you much in your attempt to reclaim your money(I am talking specifically about essay websites).

A fraudster holed up in Saudi Arabia can register an essay company in UK and gleefully perpetuate his trade against unsuspecting UK customers knowing very well the much he can lose is only his website.

I doubt if that is the case. Realistically, you cannot back every sentence in an essay with a reference. Even a literature review is not that demanding. So, a normal paragraph of about 7 sentences should have 7 references?

What, then, does your teacher expect you to learn from that essay except to collate sources, rephrase them and produce a seemingly logical piece of academic work?

A decent essay(by decent I mean an essay that actually impacts some knowledge to the student writing it) should be balanced in the sense that it actually allows a student to retain his/her voice even as he/she uses other sources in the essay.

lol. It isn't hard if, to begin with, you have the right materials for your essay. Properly sorted out materials are obviously easier to work with and knowing the boundaries of your essay also helps. i am sure you wouldn't want anything to do with my present condition- composing a 100,000 word dissertation and being supervised by someone who,although totally disinterested with your work, will spot any attempt at a research shortcut and quickly whip you back to the laborious routine of spending 7 hours a day in the library trying to understand some really muddy economic models.

If i were to write a 2000 word essay as an assignment now , i'd feel like i am learning the English alphabet.

I can offer my opinion here: from my own experience, referencing academic work is quite a daunting task if you don't know what you are doing and what your tutor expects you to achieve. Further, there is no set number of references deemed appropriate for an essay/paper of a particular length. For example, a 3000 word essay can comfortably get grade 'A' with only 6 references while, at the same time, another 3000 word essay(of the same topic) can be graded C even with 20 references. The number of references depends on the topic, context and the whole purpose of the essay- you cannot possibly write a 3000 word literature review with only 5 references and expect the paper to be of high standard- unless it deals with really obscure knowledge and any reference contained therein is clearly an effort on the part of the researcher.

Some students erroneously assume that by stuffing their essays with as many references as possible, they will earn higher grades. Not really- and that is why I pointed out that the number of references depend on the type of paper you are dealing with. Some essays subtly give the writer a big 'space' for personal opinion and consequently you don't want to drench such an essay with countless(and sometimes meaningless) references. Conversely, some really technical essays 'silently' demand that any opinion expressed must be backed by a credible source. Very little(if any) room for personal opinions- perhaps only when writing the conclusion.

Ideally then, you ought to know what is expected of that essay and the 'size of the room' it gives for personal opinions. If you hire someone to complete it for you and you don't specify what the essay should achieve, then expect anything. Depending, of course, on what the writer thinks is best for you.

I once had an economics teacher who was exceptionally gifted in the field of economics and particularly in the much feared econometrics sub-discipline. One good thing about her was that she made the topic look easy and accessible. No doubt, she was exceptionally talented in making students like and understand the topic. Problem was that she had difficulties in expressing herself orally but she compensated this with her well detailed and simplified handouts that helped us understand the subject. Being an expert in a particular discipline and not able to express yourself can be a hindrance, especially if you choose teaching as a career. Conversely, I had friends from Canada who were really talented in written English but their performance was dismal.

In my opinion, it is a "two way system"; you can fully master the English language(or any other language for that matter) but fail dismally in your chosen field or you can really be talented in your field but your linguistic skills let you down. Either way, the key is to be an expert in your field and possess linguistic tools to enable you disseminate your skills in your respective field.

Sorry for that misunderstanding. It is only that I suspect the industry could be enormous- only that it is extremely hard-almost impossible- to actually know and quantify what happens behind the scenes(customers orders, financial transactions and so on) and thus quantify its size. In fact the few newspaper articles I have come across can only at the very best estimate the industry's size. For example, yesterday I saw an article in The Telegraph estimating the essay industry in the UK to be worth £200 million(2010).

Perhaps out of naivety, I was assuming that one day, the industry will come above board and act like any other industry.

Or perhaps the whole industry might come to a one, big stop. I have heard university administrators opine that universities might be forced to eventually do away with home work/essays/ dissertations and use classroom based tests as their appraisal methods. However, this approach is fraught with difficulties as dissertations/thesis play a critical role in assessing a student's competency in his/her field(for students who write their own dissertations, anyway).

I didn't indicate anywhere that i sought the services of any essay writing company. And i am not a 'dummy'(to use your word). I simply wanted to know the 'big picture' purely for some research reasons. Don't you think the essay industry is ripe to warrant some serious research into its operations?