The contract cheating industry is using social media to promote its activities, expand its reach to students and enhance its relationship with academic writers. This feature presentation from the Canadian Symposium on Academic Integrity explores what we find out about how contract cheating and essay mill operation is changing based on what's posted on social media.

1. Social Media Enabled
Contract Cheating
Dr Thomas Lancaster
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
Canadian Symposium on Academic Integrity
Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary
Thursday, 18 April 2019

2. Alternative Title
Concerning contract
cheating industry
developments that
you might not be
aware of!

3. Background

4. Dr Thomas Lancaster
Computer Scientist at Imperial
College London, UK
Regular speaker, researcher,
blogger and media contributor on
academic integrity subjects
‘Discovered’ contract cheating –
students using a third party to
create work for assessment for
them

5. Useful Sources
My Blog
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blog
My Slide Archive
https://www.slideshare.net/thomaslancaster
(including slides from this presentation)

6. My research in
recent years…
essay
spinningwho are the academic ghost writers?
student
employability
social media
use in higher
education
plagiarism
detection
software
essay mill
marketing
academic
integrity
contract
cheating
integrity in South East Europe

7. My research in
recent years…
essay
spinningwho are the academic ghost writers?
student
employability
social media
use in higher
education
plagiarism
detection
software
essay mill
marketing
academic
integrity
contract
cheating
integrity in South East Europe

8. Contract Cheating Questions To
Consider
How is the contract cheating industry using social media as part
of their operation?
What can we discover about contract cheating based on social
media posts?
This presentation includes examples from physical advertising, online advertising and social media
(lots of Canadian examples)
Full paper submitted to Canadian Perspectives on Academic Integrity (with largely different examples)

9. The Conversation
Prism

10. Social Media –
The Teaching and
Learning
Community

11. Tweeting Encouraged
(this is a session on social media)
@DrLancaster
#contractcheating
#2019integritysymposium

12. The Climb To
Make
Progress

13. Recent New Stories
News stories in February and April 2019

14. Kenyan TV News
(April 2019)

15. Hundreds Of Academic Writers
Responded On Social Media!

16. Contract Cheating Service
Marketing

17. A Substantial and Pervasive Market

18. Physical Advertising

19. Contract Cheating Providers in Toronto
(July 2018)

20. Contract
Cheating Service
Marketing
(the 2019 way)
setting up fake
university
WhatsApp
groups,
pretending to be
fellow students
paying for
space at
Student Union
Welcome Fairs
distributing flyers with university
logos to look like official services
getting “tutor” contracts
with universities,
supposedly to support
students with individual
needs
Getting access to
student VLE
accounts, so as
to market
directly to other
students

21. Contract
Cheating Service
Marketing
(the 2019 way)
setting up fake
university
WhatsApp
groups,
pretending to be
fellow students
paying for
space at
Student Union
Welcome Fairs
distributing flyers with university
logos to look like official services
getting “tutor” contracts
with universities,
supposedly to support
students with individual
needs
Getting access to
student VLE
accounts, so as
to market
directly to other
students
Using social
media as part
of their end-to-
end marketing
approach

22. 1924 page likes
“100% no plagiarism is
guaranteed...@mastersessay will write any essay
for you no matter what subject it is”
Advertising on Social Media
Facebook Twitter

23. Advertising on
www.kijiji.ca

24. Individual Providers?

25. Search for “essay”

26. Group Infiltration

27. A Contract
Cheating
Provider?

28. Contract
Cheating
Requests

29. Ottawa, Ontario - 15 likes - 31 replies
“An MBA student at N.Y.U and expert in
academic work. I am the solution to your
academic needs.”
“I'm willing to help do the essay
for you at a cheap price
between $6-9 per page that we
both agree, it will be plagiarism-
free, in good time, and an
excellent grade is assured. Just
DM the instructions”
“Don't worry about the due date or
topic/subject of your assignment. I'm a
legit & time-conscious writer who will
get you an A+ grade in your
coursework.”
“hell yeah. can you send me the rubric?”

31. Not Always Cash…

32. Contract Cheating Services
– The Writers

33. Contract Cheating Provider
Essay mill
Individual contract cheating worker profile
Affiliate site
(and many others)
social media properties
marketing to students
social media properties
marketing to writers
community of
students
direct
engagement
social media
engagement
community of
writers
social media
engagement
direct
engagement

34. Work Individually

35. Valued Work?
#employability

36. Work Is Advertised

37. Encouraging Individuals To Look For
Contract Cheating Industry Work

38. Seeking Work

39. Writers Have Communities
https://www.uvocorp.com/freelancewriting/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/The-UVOworld-2.pdf

40. Contract
Cheating
Providers –
The Work

41. Some essay mills boast about
the work they’re doing

44. Contract Cheating Provider
Development

45. Buy A Business?
Source: Craigslist

46. Buy A Writing Account?

47. Same User ?

48. Jobs With Writing
Account Providers

49. Moving Forward

50. We can learn a lot
about the contract
cheating industry from
social media

51. We are making progress
as an international
academic integrity
community – but we
need to address a
sophisticated contract
cheating industry

52. Positive Noise ?
#defeatthecheat

53. The contract cheating
industry takes advantage of
the holes in university
processes at sector and
institutional level

54. At the international
level, our interventions
may have unintended
ethical consquences

55. The academic
integrity
community
goes beyond
the physical
space

56. We need to continue to research and discuss
the contract cheating industry and how it
engages with students

57. We need to include students as
valued partners in our academic
integrity community

58. But, What Next?
The contract cheating industry monitors
us - and the industry has a vested
interest in addressing our responses!
Times Higher Education – April 2019

59. Connect With Me
My Email: thomas@thomaslancaster.co.uk
My Website: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
My Blog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blog
My LinkedIn:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thomaslancaster
My Twitter: @DrLancaster
Slide Archive:
http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster