The concept of paying someone to do your homework is nothing new.  But over the last year, more and more contract cheating companies have sprung up, many becoming more brazen with their advertising.  These include essay mills, content generation and online exam help services.

The contract cheating and academic integrity newsletter ‘This Isn’t Fine’ spotted one such company, Haily Mary Papers, advertising on YouTube earlier this month.  Run by investigative journalists Joseph Thibault and Sam Silverman, ‘This Isn’t Fine’ is doing great work not only tracking the spread of these companies, but also managing their Essay Mill Database.  You can stay up to date with their work and access their database here.

The Hail Mary Papers’ static ads use imagery of the Virgin Mary alongside claims that the company can save students from ‘plagiarism hell’ and complete their schoolwork for them.

Though this might be one of the more eye-catching ad campaigns, ‘This Isn’t Fine’ has been tracking other contract cheating ads for companies such as WriteMyPapers, Aithor and StudyStealth, who all advertise services to help students with their essays and exams.  Though these ads are rightly prohibited, the automation of ad review services means many slip through the cracks and target even those students merely searching for essay help and not a way to cheat.  A lot of these ads are also deliberately vague and deceptive about the reality of the services they offer, something we discussed with The Cheat Sheet author Derek Newton in episode three of The VICTVS Podcast.

While contract cheating services have become increasingly common, the recent rise in popularity of generative AI has helped fuel their growth, with many companies basing their entire service around the technology.  These companies offer a more student-focused alternative to ChatGPT, an app which itself has seen a mammoth 1,900% increase in search volume since January 2024, with 48% of students saying they use the tool.

The aforementioned Aithor is one contract cheating company using AI, marketing itself as an “AI-powered writing assistant” that will, when prompted, generate an entire essay for a user.  This essay comes complete with referencing and personalisation options to mimic the user’s tone of voice; alarming to say the least.

So, why are students turning to these services?

While pressure to achieve is certainly one reason students use these services, I think it’s safe to say that their proliferation and the ease in which students can now access them is a key motivator in why so many are trying them out.  After all, the temptation of having to do less schoolwork can be too much for some to resist.

In a 2024 paper on cheating in exams, researchers cited an analysis of 5,000 tweets from students offering to pay for an essay.  While some students claimed they wanted to use a service because they were struggling to finish an assignment, others simply stated they had no interest in doing the work and wished to outsource it so that they could focus on “more pleasurable activities such as shopping and parties.”

Other reasons, such as lack of English proficiency and the need to spend more time at work instead of studying, were also given by students.

With more and more of these services becoming available to students…

What does this mean for academic integrity?

Contract cheating undeniably undermines the purpose of assessment.  Researchers’ now think that 8-9% of degrees in the UK are unreliable as a direct result of contract cheating.  This is a startling statistic and suggests that many people may be employed at a job they aren’t actually qualified for.

Needless to say this has major ethical implications, and in the case of industries like medicine, manufacturing or transportation, could put people’s lives at risk.

Ultimately, resorting to cheating services robs students of essential learning and can lead to potentially fatal skills gaps in professional settings.

Contract cheating in 2025

With AI services on the rise, it seems wise to assume more AI-based contract cheating services will appear in 2025, offering more sophisticated ways to cheat in assessments.  These tools will likely have options to personalise text to mimic a candidates writing style, further reducing their chance of detection.

To combat the rise of these companies and their use by students, institutions must adopt proactive measures, including AI detection, enhanced exam monitoring, and innovative assessment formats, to stay ahead of these challenges.  At the same time, global collaboration is necessary to establish regulations and take legal action against these companies, ensuring they are held accountable for exploiting students.

Platforms like Google Ads also need to get better at spotting ads submitted by these companies and prevent them from going live and targeting students in the first place.

If left unchecked, the rise of contract cheating services poses a serious threat to the integrity of academic institutions.  Only by taking a multi-faceted approach can we combat these services and ensure students earn their qualifications through honest effort and a commitment to genuine learning.