Essay Mill Website Blocked Under Australia Law

Essay Mill Website Before Ban

Websites which offer to write assignments for students are now banned under Australian law. The first example of such an essay mill, I have seen blocked was offering anything from a one page undergraduate paper to a complete PhD thesis, for about $20 a page. The site now displays in Australia 'The service is unavailable in Australia under the "Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment" law.'. Curiously this does not give the full title of the legislation, leaving out "Prohibiting Academic Cheating". So I think this may be action by the website provider, to avoid prosecution, than by the relevant government agency. 

It is easy enough to get around this for the desperate student. The website provider can they try to deny any wrongdoing. However, the student is likely to be disappointed when, despite assurances of the supplier, their deception is detected, and they are subject to academic disciplinary procedures. Students who are studying for entry into a profession need to keep in mind that there may be very severe legal consequences if they cheat and so are not competent to do their job.

Essay Writing Service Seeks to Market Through Academic Blogs

This week I had a curious email from an essay writing service proposing to pay me to promote their activities through this blog. From reading the email, and a casual read of their website it appears a legitimate business helping students. But on closer examination they offer to write whole assignments for students, admissions essays, and take multiple choice tests for them: "In need of a top-quality custom essay? Let our experts handle it! Our academic essay writers in Australia are waiting to help you with: Custom Essay ... Admission Essay... Multiple Choice Questions ...". Such cheating, plagiarism, and colluding, is dishonest and provides an unfair advantage. Unfortunately, while it is against the rules of educational institutions for students to make use of such services, it is not yet illegal in Australia for companies, or individuals, to offer or provide them. Perhaps a useful training exercise for cyber security students to find out as much as they can about those who provide these services, and a means of shutting them down.

"My name is ****, I work as a marketing assistant and outreach expert at ****.
I'm writing to ask if you would be interested in mutually beneficial business cooperation.
I would like you to consider two advertising options:
1) Sponsored post contribution, meaning we write a unique SEO-friendly article which corresponds to your blog theme and overall writing style;
2) Link insertion, meaning we pay for our link to be added in one of the existing articles related to our niche.
Let me your current rates for content publishing on tomw.net.au and content requirements (if any).
Looking forward to working with you,
****"