Contract cheating has been an issue concerning academics for over 10 years now, ever since the initial work by Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clarke, published in June 2016. This talk provides a view across the past decade of contract cheating, looking particularly at the wider changes in behaviour and marketing that have made contract cheating services and essay mills more accessible to students. Examples are pulled from across different academic disciplines and offer a challenge to educational providers about how to ensure that the next decade of tackling contract cheating is more successful than the last.

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A Decade Of Contract Cheating
Examining The Changes That Have Been
Made To The Marketplace For Bespoke
Essays
Presented by Dr. Thomas Lancaster
at Coventry University Conference
on Thursday, 23 June 2016
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk

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What The Hey Is This “So-
Called” Contract Cheating…
And Is It Really A Problem?

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(Informal) Definition
Contract cheating occurs when a student uses a
third party to produce original academic work
for them
Usually, contract cheating involves
money changing hands

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What Does Google Think?
This is what Google (UK) will suggest to
you if you are a student looking for
help writing your essay

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The 10 Year Focus For This Session
This presentation looks at a decade of
developments within the contract cheating
industry
Not strictly a research presentation,
but this is informed by 10(+) years of
research
Particular focus on the underlying
market trends which are changing the
access that students have to
ghostwriting services

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Your Involvement Is Encouraged!
Twitter Post comments, quotes, photos,
discussion topics
#contractcheating
#CUcbf
@DrLancaster
Live Please join in the discussion, ask
questions and contribute stories

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10 Years Watching Other
People Become Wealthy?

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Dr. Thomas Lancaster
Have researched the issues surrounding student
plagiarism, contract cheating and academic integrity
since January 2000
Joined Coventry University as Principal
Lecturer/Associate Head of School (Marketing and
Recruitment) in May 2016
Primary academic disciplines are Computer Science and
Mathematics
Main contributions to teaching include student
employability, entrepreneurship, social media
marketing and providing staff development
opportunities
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
BBC South East Today– BBC1
Dispatches – Channel 4
Fake Britain – BBC1

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Is It Cheating, Is It Business Or Is It
Entrepreneurship?

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With Thanks To “Detective Bob”
Robert Clarke
Educational Consultant and Researcher at SCL
Current Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham City
University
Former Principal Lecturer with 30 years teaching
experience
Enjoys using his free time trying to alert academics
when students try to request other people online to
complete assessed work for that student
Bob has collected over 30,000 attempts made by
students wanting to cheat BBC News at Six – BBC1

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What I Got Up To On The
Way To Monday, 19 June
2006

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A Few Days Earlier – The Start of a
Decade of Media Interest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5071886.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1521115/Cheating-
students-put-assignments-out-to-tender-on-the-internet.html

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The Original Paper
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228367576_Eliminating_the_success
or_to_plagiarism_Identifying_the_usage_of_contract_cheating_sites

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As seen on Rentacoder.com
(now Freelancer.com)
Contract cheating example used in original 2006 presentation slides
“this is collage project. its about E-COMMERCE B 2C RETAILING SYSTEM FOR A
NUTRITIONAL PRODUCT SALES COMPANY.
the time frame is 1 month. if you can finish this in less than 1 month. that would be
great.
this is collage project only....it no need to be really good design. as long meet the
requirment is fine but the web design layout should be nice.
thanks in advance.”

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15 Workers From Around The Globe Competed To Be
Awarded The Opportunity To Work On The Assignment
Bidder Bid (USD) Bidder Stated Location
mfavw 85.00 Egypt
farhadcoders 93.50 Pakistan
outsource2win 126.65 Nepal
noorwebcrea 127.50 United States
rd170 127.50 United Kingdom
sharekhs 127.50 India
shreeinfosystems 127.50 India
inadilemma 144.50 Australia
perfectron 148.75 India
futureforce 153.00 India
adsystemsl 170.00 Afghanistan
livemist 170.00 Philippines
logicexpertvw 170.00 India
meghanivas143 170.00 India
vw1638062vw 170.00 India
average bid = $140.76

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Essay Mills– A Decade Ago And Today
June 2006 June 2016

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A Necessary Increase In Sophistication?
https://twitter.com/DrLancaster/status/742994739084075009

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Today… Has The Behaviour of Contract
Cheating Become Normalised?
Daily Telegraph - 29 May 2016
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/29/essay-writing-
industry-booms-as-students-demand-tailor-made-cour
“All Answers Ltd, one
of the biggest players
in the essay-writing
business, has grown
10pc year on year, it
said, while the boss of
one its rivals, Essay
Writer, believes the
industry is now
worth around
£100m.”

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Cheating In A Disconnected
World?

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Sophisticated
marketing campaign
on the London
Underground 2016

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All seen on a five
minute walk
between the railway
station and a West
Midlands university

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Freshly Developed Methods of
Online Connection

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Facebook advertising
(paid/free) targeted at
students

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Facebook groups offering
essay writing “support”

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Simple (joke?)
Twitter
request

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Typical essay writing
negotiations on Twitter

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Departing From The
Traditional Essay Mill

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Sites
targeted to
academic
disciplines

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Sites
targeted
to specific
markets

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Cheating Opportunities Extending
Beyond The Traditional “Essay”
Range of
other
services
available
through
contract
cheating
sites

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Maybe I should have got
someone else to write this talk
for me?

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Make Money Without
Running An Essay Mill

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High Paying Referrals?
Essay writing services compete to
attract the best affiliates and offer the
best commission rates.

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Legitimate Reviews?
Standard marketing techniques for
“legitimate” businesses now used by essay
companies

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Helping Students To Cheat Is
A Coveted Career

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New jobs for academics?

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Do you get these benefits working at a university?

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Get Paid To Write

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Whole communities
now exist to help
people to become
“academic writers”
and enable them to
work (providing
contract cheating
services)

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What Do We Need To Work
On For The Next Ten Years?

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Consider The Underlying Marketing
Issues
Sophisticated marketing campaigns now in
place to attract students, writers and affiliates
Sites compete to be seen as offering a
“legitimate” service
Support can be gained externally through
“private tutors”

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https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/128037

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How do we promote the benefits to students
of them completing their own work?
How do we address the unwillingness of
some academics to take contract cheating
seriously?

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Many More Resources To
Share…

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References For My Main Contract
Cheating Publications
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2015), Contract Cheating – The Outsourcing Of Assessed Student Work, in Handbook of Academic Integrity, Bretag, T. (editor): SpringerReference.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2015),The Implications of Plagiarism and Contract Cheating for the Assessment of Database Modules. 13th International Workshop on Teaching,
Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2015), Birmingham, UK, July 2015.
Hersey, C. and Lancaster, T. (2015), The Online Industry of Paper Mills, Contract Cheating Services, and Auction Sites, Clute Institute International Education Conference, London,
June 2015.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014), An Observational Analysis Of The Range And Extent Of Contract Cheating From Online Courses Found On Agency Websites; 8th International
Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS 2014), Birmingham City University, UK, July 2014.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014), An Initial Analysis Of The Contextual Information Available Within Auction Posts On Contract Cheating Agency Websites, 28th IEEE
International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, University of Victoria, May 2014
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014), Using Turnitin As A Tool For Attribution In Cases Of Contract Cheating; 3rd Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, April 2014.
Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2013). Commercial Aspects Of Contract Cheating; 8th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, University
of Kent, Canterbury, UK, July 2013.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2012). Dealing With Contract Cheating: A Question Of Attribution; 1st Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics, Imperial College, London, April 2012.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2010). Staff-Led Individualised Assessment – A Case Study; 11th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Information and Computer
Sciences, Durham University, August 2010.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2008). How to Succeed at Cheating Without Really Trying: Five Top Tips for Successful Cheating; 9th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference
in Information and Computer Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, August 2008.
Clarke, R, and Lancaster, T (2007). Establishing a Systematic Six-Stage Process for Detecting Contract Cheating; The Second International Conference on Pervasive Computing
and Applications, Birmingham City University, July 2007.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007). Assessing Contract Cheating Through Auction Sites – A Computing Perspective; 8th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in
Information and Computer Sciences, University of Southampton, August 2007.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007) The Phenomena of Contract Cheating, in Student Plagiarism in an Online World: Problems and solutions, Roberts, T. S. (editor), Hershey,
Pennsylvania, USA: Idea Group Inc.
Clarke, R and Lancaster, T (2006). Eliminating The Successor To Plagiarism? Identifying The Usage Of Contract Cheating Sites; 2nd Plagiarism: Prevention, Practice and Policy
Conference 2006 - Newcastle, UK, June 2006.

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Contract Cheating Resources On
Slideshare.net
This session’s slides are available at:
http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster
A video version of this presentation is available at:
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrThomasLancaster

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Further Information and Speaker
Bookings
Dr. Thomas Lancaster Contact Details
Email: thomas.lancaster@coventry.ac.uk
Website: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
Blog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blog
LinkedIn:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thomaslancaster
Twitter: @DrLancaster
General Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_cheating
http://contractcheating.com
Contract Cheating Special Interest Group
(originally supported by the Higher Education
Academy):
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-
bin/webadmin?A0=CONTRACTCHEATING