$200 for 5000 words: The lucrative black market preying on Australian university students
$200 for a 5000-word assignment. $80 for a presentation. Aussie university students are being lured by organised black market cheating services. But is the risk worth the reward?
Black market assignment writers are bypassing Australia’s higher education regulator’s contract cheating guardrails to prey on vulnerable university students who are forking out hundreds of dollars for unethical essay writing and assessment help services.
NewsCorp has seen dozens of advertisements on social media promoting “grade-boosting” assignment help with the promise of free TurnItIn grading reports, zero AI-detection and content that complies with Australian university standards.
This is despite the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) blocking hundreds of websites built for the purpose of contract cheating in recent months.
Contract cheating is when students outsource their assessments to a third party – whether that be a commercial provider, current or former student or family member – and can sometimes involve payment.
Dodgy assignment dealers have progressed beyond Facebook and WhatsApp to lure those in desperate need of academic support, with postgraduate student Hemant Dhital describing the “booming industry” as one that’s operating “quietly but effectively”.
“(They’re) operating in Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats, Instagram DMs, and even SMS messages offering ‘guaranteed A+’ academic work in exchange for payment,” Mr Dhital said.
After growing frustrated with the threat these services posed to educational standards, the Victorian Institute of Technology cybersecurity major – who has over nine years of experience in higher education teaching and IT roles – researched how gaps in enforcement were contributing to dozens of students being exploited.
Some ads claim to be Australian, but ask students to contact them on international numbers including those with area codes from the United Kingdom, India and the United States via WhatsApp.
One service, which confessed to operating from India, quoted this masthead $200 for a 5000-word assignment, $80 for a 15-slide PowerPoint and $100 for a 12 page thesis.
When asked if the assignment’s content would meet Australian academic integrity standards, they said they had “specially trained experts” and did assignments for students based in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and United States.
“We are working here from (sic) last five years,” they said when questioned about the integrity of their service.
“We will provide you good quality work with free rework and also provide you with an AI (and) plagiarism report.”
As for the payment method, the company said they accepted half of the payment upfront and the remaining half “upon delivery of the assignment”.
“You can pay through Wise or Remitly app,” they said.
“Will give you Indian bank account.”
Mr Dhital said he often saw advertisements for these services during his studies.
“As a postgraduate student myself, I have seen it happen repeatedly. I’ve received unsolicited messages, emails and even calls offering assignment completion,” he said.
“Their service charge ranges from $40 to $200 Australian dollars, it typically depends on the type and word count of the assignment.”
Mr Dhital said the target audience for the cheating services were international students studying at Australian universities, who were still learning the ropes of the country’s education system and English was their second language.
“For many, failing a subject isn’t just about grades – it could jeopardise their visa or plans to stay in Australia,” he said.
“In that high-pressure environment, these services present themselves as a lifeline. They use tempting and comforting language in their advertisements – ‘academic support’, ‘assignment help’, gateway to A+ grade’.
“Some students may not even be fully aware they are breaching academic integrity until it’s too late.”
A TEQSA spokeswoman said the agency had blocked 475 of these services from operating- including 60 in March alone – plus 1000 social media accounts and advertisements that promote these illegal cheating websites.
“TEQSA continues to disrupt predatory academic cheating services by blocking their websites in Australia,” she said.
“This includes services advertising or offering illegal cheating services via social media that directly target students, in languages other than English or services that are based overseas.”
But Mr Dhital said many were still accessible, and often without any warnings.
“I have tried to access some of the blocked websites using various ISPs (internet services providers), and found they are accessible on some ISPs but blocked on others, demonstrating inconsistent filtering implementation across different providers,” he said.
Universities across the country have collectively seen hundreds of cases of contract cheating in the past 12 months, despite measures put in place to stop it.
At the University of Melbourne, there were approximately 400 reports of suspected contract cheating made in each of 2023 and 2024.
The university’s deputy vice-chancellor (academic) Professor Gregor Kennedy said suspected cheating services were blocked from its internal networks.
“The university proactively educates students on academic integrity, regularly alerts students to scams and cheating services and runs peer outreach programs co-designed with student organisations,” he said.
The figure was even greater at the University of Sydney where 3498 academic integrity breaches were reported in 2024 against 3068 students, including many lower-level breaches where only warnings were issued, involving poor referencing or incorrect attribution.
Additionally, 14 students were stripped of their degree entirely after the university discovered they had committed fraud or other forms of misconduct during their studies – highlighting the long-term risks of using contract cheating services.
The university’s deputy vice-chancellor (education) Professor Joanne Wright described the cheating companies as “brazen and predatory”.
“Our goal is always to help students identify and avoid these companies, so they don’t jeopardise their academic record and future careers,” she said.
The National Student Ombudsman (NSO) has also received 18 complaints related to allegations of contract cheating being made against students by a higher education provider, but this is relatively small compared to the total number of complaints raised since the NSO first launched earlier this year.
Mr Dhital said just as scams are flagged by a bank, contract cheating services should be “treated as a digital threat” by social media platforms.
“The normalisation of assignment helpers is a warning sign,” he said.
“If ignored, it threatens not only the reputation of Australian higher education as the top destination for education, but could have long-term economic consequences.”
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Originally published as $200 for 5000 words: The lucrative black market preying on Australian university students
