I've been accused of cheating on a course

[flopsyandjim]

Apologies if this is long but I don't want to drip feed and I swear what I am saying is the truth.

For background: I am a disabled person. I have multiple disabilities both physical and mental - I have ptsd and have been suicidal in the past.

Despite my disabilities, I have achieved a Cert HE, a BA, a PgD, a MSC and I plan to do a PHD in the future.

I have always been employed and I did these courses distance learning or part time. I am currently employed in a university - this is relevant.

During lockdown, I did several upskilling modules to keep me busy if I wasn't able to go to the gym etc. I also enrolled in a online A level course and got a grant for the cost of this due to my disabilities.

I have had a lot of problems with this course due to its inaccessibility eg I am visually impaired and have highlighted these issues repeatedly to little change. I failed some assignments first time around and I am working on resubmissions. I have regular talks with other students and some of them are not happy. There are no exams, just written assignments.

Well I've now been contacted by one of the A level course tutors to say that my essays have been found on a cheating essay website alongside my picture as my profile picture.

I've never heard of this website before today. I went to have a look and there are some of my essays on there (do not know how they got them) alongside several lesson plans for such as "how to learn English" (which are not my work at all). It also has me registered as studying in India (which I never have).

I told the tutor that this is not my account and I have no idea how the essays got there. I have never shared my essays with any one other than my tutors.

He says I need to get them taken off or there could be serious repercussions. I cannot get them off if it is not my account. I have tried contacting the site to ask for them to be removed but their FAQs say they don't remove content once uploaded?

I am terrified. Whilst I don't care if I get kicked off the A level course (even though I'm innocent), I am worried about what implications this could have for me in other areas. Could my work find out? Could it affect my hopes of doing a PHD?

On that basis, all my assignments for my degree and postgrad courses had to go through turnitin and never did any issues come up. I got Merit and Distinction passes.

Why would I cheat on an A level course I don't even really need? Why?

I am terrified about what this could mean for me and also worry that other students on the course could be impacted. I am honestly innocent and I'm trying to get it resolved. I've changed all my passwords in case of a computer or email hack. I don't know what else I can do. Help and advice very much welcome, especially from those with experience of something like this. Sorry for the length.

Definitely go above your tutor. IME go high.

And if you think there's any chance of your work finding out, then be the person who informs them.

This may be entirely irrelevant:
My experience is fellow students who where using a quite good quality essay mill*, (assume that's what you mean by a cheating website?) got discounts on what they paid for their essays for each fellow student they introduced to the 'service.' There was an upline structure not dissimilar to MLM's.

I was approached by three from a pyramid to join them and then create a downline to get most of my money back,. I turned them down as diplomatically as I could but pointed out amongst other things anyone who passed on a fraudulent essay would be blackmailable for ever.
What happened after that was beyond horrible. In a nutshell I was put in a position where if I ever reported them I'd be unlikely to be believed.

When I was approached I was given two cards, one of which directed to a 'sister' website that appeared to give away essays to see the quality offered.

(I did report the whole thing but without naming fellow students, I didn't even get an acknowledgement from my uni.)

BTW ever since, my inbox is full of these companies trying to solicit me including in another language. My name is common in both languages. My details are clearly widely shared.

While first impulse is hacking or theft for profit of some kind, I'm wondering if someone either feels threatened or is annoyed by you taking something you're ruled out of, and you're being set up.

others posted while I was writing that.

Contact the industry’s IT section, if they have one. Run a malware security check on the laptop/ computer you were using. Go above the tutor and explain what’s happened.

You have to change your mindset.

This is not your problem.

This is your course-provider's problem.

Somehow, they've allowed your work to be stolen.

Your tutor has it all around the wrong way and you need to get angry.

Your reply to your tutor should be along the lines of, 'Thank you got bringing this to my attention. Since I know I am not responsible for what is clearly a data breach, I would like to ask for your support and advice in pursuing the source of this and rectifying damage to my reputation.'

And, yes, you need to go higher. Admin, student services, head of course ... whoever.

From what you say, there has been a serious data breach, which ultimately is extremely damaging for the course provider's reputation.

You need to go all the way up with this.

It's really not on you to sort this out.

If their system has been compromised, they need to know - and fast.

Your tutor really hasn't grasped the seriousness of the issue.

You absolutely need to go higher than your tutor, not just to get it resolved but also for his poor conduct.
I hope you get sorted OP

I agree, report it as a data breech. This is so scary

I mean, seriously, who is going to pay a lot of money to an institution that permits data theft and reputations damage?

That's not what you paid for.

You could have used a dodgy website and have brought that down for free.

The fact this is a provider that charges money to have your work stolen and your face plastered on the internet is a scandal.

Believe me, once you get high enough in your provider's structure to speak to someone who understands marketing, finance and institutional reputation all damage, there will be action.

Honestly, this isn't for you to sort out.

Please don’t kick off like thecatfromjapan is suggesting. There’s no evidence there has been a data breach on their side, and you will get a much better response if you approach it in a measured way, requesting their help.

there are a bundle of essays by me, not just for this course, and there are essays not by me under what's being presented as my account.

So the fact there are other essays of mine other than these A level essays, also worries me regarding proving my innocence.

I honestly do not know how they got on this site

What's the common denominator between the essay for this course and the other essay of yours that are there?

Have you run them all through Grammerly? Are they all in Dropbox? Are they all on the same laptop computer?

Are they in the cloud anywhere like Google Drive?

You might need to take your computer to a professional to check for malware.

I know this course is not at your university, but you might also want to give your boss / supervisor at the university a 'heads up' that you are having an issue with a site that has stolen your work. that way, if it ever comes to the attention of the university, you have got the truth on the record first.

yes the tutor said my stuff has been seen on this website, can I explain urgently why? to which I replied, I had no idea what he is talking about, have never heard of that site, no idea how my work got on there.

He then replied, I am going out now but get them off or there will be serious repercussions.

This sounds like an academic equivalent of revenge porn. Telling you to get your stolen work off a (probably criminal) stranger's website in a foreign jurisdiction or suffer the consequences is victim blaming at its worst.

As you say, you'd have to be very stupid to upload it - these sites probably pay pennies for each of the goodness-knows-how-many essays they feature, if they bother to pay for them at all. If you'd stolen it, how come the work that you supposedly plagiarised happens to have been written by somebody who looks exactly like you and has the exact same name?

I agree that there's an immense temptation for grammar-check and plagiarism-check websites to actually steal the essays that people upload to them - a kind of 'who guards the guards' scenario. I'm sure there are plenty of decent, legitimate checking sites that respect your privacy; but I'd be highly surprised if there weren't some dodgy ones out there too.

@flopsyandjim

there are a bundle of essays by me, not just for this course, and there are essays not by me under what's being presented as my account.

So the fact there are other essays of mine other than these A level essays, also worries me regarding proving my innocence.

I honestly do not know how they got on this site

If someone has hacked your Facebook password they can log in as you anywhere where you have used your FB account to authenticate. It's better to have a separate login for every account and to keep the passwords stored securely. I suggest you change your FB password and add your mobile number to your account for multi-factor authentication in future.

As regards getting the essays and your photo off the site, all you can realistically do is report them to the site owner. But it sounds like they may not be very moral. You could Google to see if other people have reported the same problem ... at least that helps you demonstrate that you're the victim of a systemic issue.

they are all on the same laptop, yes

I use the same email for all my courses

I use facebook to log in to nearly ever site that gives that option

and I use grammarly for a lot of my work

You forfeit all intellectual rights when you upload

OP if one of your employee benefits is a free legal advice service it may be worth you giving them a call.

I'm in a union but I think they might only be able to help with employment issues.

I think they need to prove you guilty rather than you prove your innocence quite honestly. This is more common that you think. You would think they would be aware of this.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but maybe check which sites you have logged into using facebook.
You can check this under Facebook settings: Settings and privacy > Settings > Apps and websites.

Change your logins in future to be individual ones that don't go through FaceBook. In fact, set up a few different gmails for each level of security. ie one just for banking. Another one for sites that have some amount of personal information that you care about. And a third one for the gardening group that will probably accidentally post your email on some public website.

I have had a lot of problems with this course due to its inaccessibility eg I am visually impaired and have highlighted these issues repeatedly to little change.

Could whoever you complained to have access to your work at all? Was it your tutor to whom you highlighted the accessibility issues? It honestly sounds like he could have done this (matching it up to your SM profile etc) and is the only person who stands to gain (he will have less headache if you get thrown off the course for misconduct instead of him having to make the units accessible) from this. It's also interesting that he was the one who "discovered" it. Seriously you need to go over his head with this.

@flopsyandjim

there are a bundle of essays by me, not just for this course, and there are essays not by me under what's being presented as my account.

So the fact there are other essays of mine other than these A level essays, also worries me regarding proving my innocence.

I honestly do not know how they got on this site

If there are other essays of yours on this site that haven’t been submitted for your A-level course then the A-level college/tutors are not how they got there so best not to go in and suggest they may have had a breach.

The source is your computer/accounts.

I think you need specialist computer forensics help to both try and identify how the essays got there and to clean up your system. If they can identify the problem they can do you a report you can submit to the A-level tutor.

I did what the PP said about checking facebook and the essay website is showing up in my facebook apps / log ins! but I've never used it!

Ok, stop messing about with your computer now. You need specialist help. Speak to someone at your University tomorrow. You might need to contact the Police to report harassment and it might even be a hate incident if it is related to your disability. This is a threat to your employment so take it seriously and get it investigated by the professionals.

I understand the convenience of logging in via Facebook but it's just so risky.

Start unpicking that now. Everywhere you can start a direct, secure, private login.

I'd even suggest leaving gmail.

Also have you ever used public WiFi? Do you know it's not secure and if you login to something on public WiFi your login details can be more easily harvested?

If you logged into to Facebook on public WiFi and you use that for lots of things...well you can see the problem.

Start securing everything ASAP. If you go through this process it might add value to your conversations with the course provider.

Good luck.