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International students pay illegal essay writing service to complete assignments

Darren Boon

Thu Nov 13 2014

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A recent Fairfax Media report has revealed a large number of international students from New South Wales and Victoria have paid a Sydney-based essay writing service to complete their work. Darren Boon has more details.

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Students of La Trobe, Monash and RMIT universities were amongst those to have paid money to a Sydney company in exchange for completed assignments, essays and online tests, a Fairfax Media report has revealed.

The website, MyMaster.com.au (which is now offline), was written in Mandarin and targeted international students. According to the report, one of the company’s flyers – which capitalised on international students’ anxiety about failing a subject – was posted on the back of a toilet door at the University of Technology, Sydney.

The website asserted to be the “largest essay writing service in Sydney with 100 graduate writers from ‘prestigious universities in Australia’ ready to accept jobs at any one time”.

Students were reported to have been charged anywhere between $13 to $1050, depending on their qualification level, the number of words, their desired grade, and the urgency of order. For instance, one student from University of Newcastle’s business school was alleged to have spent more than $1500 on the service, the report stated.

Related story: MELD Exclusive: Students spend hundreds on essay writing services

The report also claimed it had “seen 700 receipts for direct deposits to the MyMaster bank account, totalling more than $160,000” for this year only. This excludes payments made to the service via PayPal or in cash. Most of the money made came from job requests from students of the University of Newcastle, followed by those from Macquarie University, University of Technology Sydney, University of Sydney and University of New South Wales.

According to the report’s info-graphic, MyMaster received 128 requests from students of Macquarie University – the highest amongst all the universities. The University of Newcastle was not far behind with 123 requests. In comparison, MyMaster received only 17 requests from La Trobe University students.

Most of the commissioned works were related to business, accounting, management and marketing subjects.

Universities have strict policies in regards to plagiarism and cheating. Students would face harsh sanctions if they are caught breaking these policies. They might, for instance, automatically fail the related course or even face the prospect of suspension and expulsion from the university.

If you know of any such websites providing such services, or had personally used such services before, drop us an e-mail at meld@meldmagazine.com.au. We would like to hear from you. All correspondence and information would be kept strictly confidential and anonymous. 

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