Avoid Fraudulent Writing Services - Choose a Top-Rated One

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Students need help with academic writing. That isn’t an opinion but a fact, based on the prevalence of writing tutors and remedial writing courses at colleges and universities. Indeed, by one estimate, the majority of students entering community colleges need remedial writing assistance, and that number is growing at four-year schools as well. Because students need help writing, they increasingly turn to academic writing services for help. Choosing a writing service with top-rated academic writers can help students improve their performance on essays, but too many students get taken in by fraudulent writing services that don’t deliver what they promise. Here’s how to know if you are being taken for a ride and what to do to make sure you choose a top-rated essay-writing service.

Avoid Fraudulent Writing Services - Choose a Top-Rated One

First, it’s important to understand what we mean by legitimate and fraudulent writing services. A legitimate writing service provides a custom-written piece of academic writing in response to requirements you provide. A fraudulent service will misrepresent aspects of their business in order to appear to be legitimate and will deliver a substandard product while charging you for the real thing.

When you go to place an order with a writing service, you want to look for some key signs that you are using a legitimate service. Let’s go through a few of them.

First, does the service allow you to speak to a real person? A legitimate service provides a way to speak with a real, live human being who will answer your questions and address your concerns. If a service does not have real people manning the phones or responding via a live chat, you are more likely to be dealing with a fraudulent service that threw up a website in order to lure you in and take your money. Similarly, a legitimate writing service will facilitate contact of some kind between you and your writer. This doesn’t always take the form of a phone call, but if there is no way to pass on messages to your writer, you are more likely to be dealing with a fraudulent service.

Second, how much do they charge per page? When prices seem too low to be true, you are probably dealing with a fraudulent service. A legitimate service needs to charge appropriate prices to be able to pay for top quality writers. These writers need to be paid, and if a service charges less than you think a writer should be willing to accept to write a paper, there chances are pretty good that your service is farming out the paper to a third-world country, where non-native English speakers produce papers for pennies on the dollar, but often at a lower quality. Or, the service is cutting corners by recycling content from previous essays or other forms of plagiarism.

Third, will the service provide you with a custom-written paper? A high-quality academic writing service will provide you with customized papers to demonstrate the quality of a real writing service with top-rated academic writers you can hire online. If a company can’t provide you with a writing sample from the writer they plan to match you with, this is a red flag that they might have something to hide.

Fourth, does the company have a policy about revisions and refunds should something go wrong? You want to make sure that you are protected in the event that something goes wrong during the writing process. If the writer misses a requirement, the company should have a policy that clearly explains that when you are able to receive a free revision and when the company will charge you to revise the paper. Similarly, they should be able to tell you under what circumstances you will qualify for a refund, and they should be able to provide their revision rate so you can judge the quality of their papers. A company that claims to have no revisions is likely being deceptive since even the best writers occasionally make mistakes.

It might also be worth doing a search to determine who owns the domain name used by the service you plan to buy from. If the owner is located outside your country, it might be a red flag to look more closely at the service you are planning to buy from and whether they are a legitimate service with a quality product.

Check the comment section below for additional information, share what you know, or ask a question about this article by leaving a comment below. And, to quickly find answers to your questions, use our search Search engine.

Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.

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Online Threat Alerts Security Tips

Pay the safest way

Credit cards are the safest way to pay for online purchases because you can dispute the charges if you never get the goods or services or if the offer was misrepresented. Federal law limits your liability to $50 if someone makes unauthorized charges to your account, and most credit card issuers will remove them completely if you report the problem promptly.

Guard your personal information

In any transaction you conduct, make sure to check with your state or local consumer protection agency and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to see if the seller, charity, company, or organization is credible. Be especially wary if the entity is unfamiliar to you. Always call the number found on a website’s contact information to make sure the number legitimately belongs to the entity you are dealing with.

Be careful of the information you share

Never give out your codes, passwords or personal information, unless you are sure of who you're dealing with

Know who you’re dealing with

Crooks pretending to be from companies you do business with may call or send an email, claiming they need to verify your personal information. Don’t provide your credit card or bank account number unless you are actually paying for something and know who you are sending payment to. Your social security number should not be necessary unless you are applying for credit. Be especially suspicious if someone claiming to be from a company with whom you have an account asks for information that the business already has.

Check your accounts

Regularly check your account transactions and report any suspicious or unauthorised transactions.

Don’t believe promises of easy money

If someone claims that you can earn money with little or no work, get a loan or credit card even if you have bad credit, or make money on an investment with little or no risk, it’s probably a scam. Oftentimes, offers that seem too good to be true, actually are too good to be true.

Do not open email from people you don’t know

If you are unsure whether an email you received is legitimate, try contacting the sender directly via other means. Do not click on any links in an email unless you are sure it is safe.

Think before you click

If an email or text message looks suspicious, don’t open any attachments or click on the links.

Verify urgent requests or unsolicited emails, messages or phone calls before you respond

If you receive a message or a phone call asking for immediate action and don't know the sender, it could be a phishing message.

Be careful with links and new website addresses

Malicious website addresses may appear almost identical to legitimate sites. Scammers often use a slight variation in spelling or logo to lure you. Malicious links can also come from friends whose email has unknowingly been compromised, so be careful.

Secure your personal information

Before providing any personal information, such as your date of birth, Social Security number, account numbers, and passwords, be sure the website is secure.

Stay informed on the latest cyber threats

Keep yourself up to date on current scams by visiting this website daily.

Use Strong Passwords

Strong passwords are critical to online security.

Keep your software up to date and maintain preventative software programs

Keep all of your software applications up to date on your computers and mobile devices. Install software that provides antivirus, firewall, and email filter services.

Update the operating systems on your electronic devices

Make sure your operating systems (OSs) and applications are up to date on all of your electronic devices. Older and unpatched versions of OSs and software are the target of many hacks. Read the CISA security tip on Understanding Patches and Software Updates for more information.

What if You Got Scammed?

Stop Contact With The Scammer

Hang up the phone. Do not reply to emails, messages, or letters that the scammer sends. Do not make any more payments to the scammer. Beware of additional scammers who may contact you claiming they can help you get your lost money back.

Secure Your Finances

  • Report potentially compromised bank account, credit or debit card information to your financial institution(s) immediately. They may be able to cancel or reverse fraudulent transactions.
  • Notify the three major credit bureaus. They can add a fraud alert to warn potential credit grantors that you may be a victim of identity theft. You may also want to consider placing a free security freeze on your credit report. Doing so prevents lenders and others from accessing your credit report entirely, which will prevent them from extending credit:

Check Your Computer

If your computer was accessed or otherwise affected by a scam, check to make sure that your anti-virus is up-to-date and running and that your system is free of malware and keylogging software. You may also need to seek the help of a computer repair company. Consider utilizing the Better Business Bureau’s website to find a reputable company.

Change Your Account Passwords

Update your bank, credit card, social media, and email account passwords to try to limit further unauthorized access. Make sure to choose strong passwords when changing account passwords.

Report The Scam

Reporting helps protect others. While agencies can’t always track down perpetrators of crimes against scammers, they can utilize the information gathered to record patterns of abuse which may lead to action being taken against a company or industry.

Report your issue to the following agencies based on the nature of the scam:

  • Local Law Enforcement: Consumers are encouraged to report scams to their local police department or sheriff’s office, especially if you lost money or property or had your identity compromised.
  • Federal Trade Commission: Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or use the Online Complaint Assistant to report various types of fraud, including counterfeit checks, lottery or sweepstakes scams, and more.
  • Identitytheft.gov: If someone is using your personal information, like your Social Security, credit card, or bank account number, to open new accounts, make purchases, or get a tax refund, report it at www.identitytheft.gov. This federal government site will also help you create your Identity Theft Report and a personal recovery plan based on your situation. Questions can be directed to 877-ID THEFT.

How To Recognize a Phishing Scam

Scammers use email or text messages to try to steal your passwords, account numbers, or Social Security numbers. If they get that information, they could get access to your email, bank, or other accounts. Or they could sell your information to other scammers. Scammers launch thousands of phishing attacks like these every day — and they’re often successful.

Scammers often update their tactics to keep up with the latest news or trends, but here are some common tactics used in phishing emails or text messages:

Phishing emails and text messages often tell a story to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment. You might get an unexpected email or text message that looks like it’s from a company you know or trust, like a bank or a credit card or utility company. Or maybe it’s from an online payment website or app. The message could be from a scammer, who might

  • say they’ve noticed some suspicious activity or log-in attempts — they haven’t
  • claim there’s a problem with your account or your payment information — there isn’t
  • say you need to confirm some personal or financial information — you don’t
  • include an invoice you don’t recognize — it’s fake
  • want you to click on a link to make a payment — but the link has malware
  • say you’re eligible to register for a government refund — it’s a scam
  • offer a coupon for free stuff — it’s not real

About Online Threat Alerts (OTA)

Online Threat Alerts or OTA is an anti-cybercrime community that started in 2012. OTA alerts the public to cyber crimes and other web threats.

By alerting the public, we have prevented a lot of online users from getting scammed or becoming victims of cybercrimes.

With the ever-increasing number of people going online, it important to have a community like OTA that continuously alerts or protects those same people from cyber-criminals, scammers and hackers, who are every day finding new ways of carrying out their malicious activities.

Online users can help by reporting suspicious or malicious messages or websites to OTA. And, if they want to determine if a message or website is a threat or scam, they can use OTA's search engine to search for the website or parts of the message for information.

Help maintain Online Threat Alerts (OTA).

Avoid Fraudulent Writing Services - Choose a Top-Rated One