title: The ecosystem of commercial academic fraud: The academic underworld of contract cheating, admissions fraud, and paper mills
Creators: name: Eaton, Sarah Elaine
name: Carmichael, Jamie J.
Publisher: name: Werklund School of Education
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: academic integrity
subject: academic misconduct
subject: plagiarism
subject: academic fraud
subject: fake degree
subject: degree fraud
subject: degree mill
subject: diploma mill
subject: admissions fraud
subject: fake diploma
subject: credentialism
subject: term paper mill
subject: paper mill
subject: higher education
subject: accreditation fraud
subject: blackmail
subject: extortion
subject: contract cheating
subject: academic dishonesty
subject: corruption

description: In this presentation we present historical and contemporary perspectives on an inquiry that began as an investigation into the global fake degree and fraudulent credential industry (Eaton et al., 2023). The question that originally guided this qualitative inquiry was: What is currently known about the global fake degree industry? This inquiry led to the following, which will be discussed during the presentation: i) definition of the key terms used; ii) linkages between the various forms of commercial academic fraud; iii) the scope and magnitude of the fake degree industry. This work has significance to research ethics as post-secondary institutions are the governing bodies or gatekeepers to academia. If the foundation is based on lies, and deceit, this has consequences for the entire community. Students may be admitted on false pretenses. Also, academics hired without the proper training and expertise, or may claim credentials they have not earned. Fraudulent services also include papers written by services for a fee, including an assignment to satisfy a course requirement, dissertations, or a scientific article. This “underworld” damages the reputation of higher education, decreases its value, and takes away from the important research that is being done. Method In this qualitative exploratory study, we employed methods used in historical and documentary research as outlined by Martin (2018). We conducted a knowledge synthesis, which differs from a literature review, insofar as our sources included both scholarly and non-scholarly sources, including news articles. The scholarly research on this topic has been limited and sporadic, when compared to contract cheating, for example. Likewise, the evidence found was often dated. Nonetheless, the approach was to gather as much knowledge as possible, from all sources (Google, Google Scholar to searches in library databases), to form a historical snapshot that contributes to a greater understanding of the problem. Results and Discussion The work of FBI Special Agent (retired), Allen Ezell (2019a, 2019b, 2019c, 2022) was immensely helpful in our investigation. Ezell is not a scholar, but a retired member of the FBI who has spent more than 40 years working to combat the global fake degree industry, including legal cases in which he was instrumental in successful prosecution of fake degree operators in the United States (Ezell, 2022). His work is published mainly in professional journals, rather than scholarly journals. Ezell (2019a, 2019b, 2019c, 2022) describes companies that engage in academic fraud as criminal enterprises and a form of organized crime. Ezell describes the work of fake degree companies as encompassing fake and fraudulent academic documents (e.g., diplomas and transcripts), admissions fraud services (including having student proxies sit entrance exams on behalf of students), the provision of so-called research services and assignment completion services, student proxy services to complete entire courses on behalf of a customer, and scientific writing services (i.e., paper mills). Contract cheating companies will regularly set up website storefronts and take them down just as quickly. Similarly, there is evidence dating back to the 1950s that degree mills and fake diploma companies have engaged in similar practices of changing PO boxes and telephone numbers to evade detection (Reid, 1963; Ezell, 2019a, 2019b, 2019c). In his 2019 article on academic fraud and diploma mills, Ezell provided details about how companies that sell bogus academic documents “use extortion and blackmail to extract more money from previous diploma buyers” (Ezell, 2019a, p. 40). Unbeknownst to Ezell, half a world away, Jon Yorke and colleagues were in the midst of writing an article on how contract cheating companies blackmail students (Yorke et al., 2020). Through our inquiry we have been able to “connect the dots” in ways not previously done. Not only are the business practices similar, but in fact, we have every indication that there are “full service companies” that offer multiple types of services and products including contract cheating, admissions fraud, fraudulent documents and scientific research fabrications. Some companies have boutique offerings of only student assignment products or only fake parchments, but to date, academic integrity researchers have not considered the connections between these companies. There is strong evidence to show that there is a connection between companies that peddle fake and fraudulent academic and professional documents, contract cheating companies (including those that supply student proxy and impersonation services), admissions fraud services, and the scholarly and scientific paper mill industry. We refer to these interconnected industries as the ecosystem of commercial academic fraud. Our synthesis sheds new light on the global “academic underworld” (Reid, 1963) that has existed for decades. We hope that our work will bring valuable new perspectives to academic integrity researchers who specialize in contract cheating, fraud, and global corruption of higher education. Suggested citation: Eaton, S. E., &amp; Carmichael, J. (2023, July 12). The ecosystem of commercial academic fraud: The academic underworld of contract cheating, admissions fraud, and paper mills [Presentation]. 9th European Conference on Ethics and Integrity in Academia, University of Derby, Derby, UK.