A few weeks ago I came across a website that allows college students to cheat on due dates, but without a “lame excuse.”  The website is Corrupted-Files.com.  This is a very witty way of using the complexities of technology to cheat.  Very interesting to say the least.  Here’s how it works…

• The student does not have a paper done by the assigned due date.
• The student can then go to Corrupted-Files.com and download  a corrupted file (Powerpoint, Excel, or Word) – the file doesn’t corrupt anything on your computer, it’s simply not able to be opened by the person receiving the file (which in this case is a professor).
• The student purchases the file, names it the title appropriate for the project that’s due, and emails the purchased file to the professor
• It will likely take the professor a day or two to get back to the student describing his/her inability to open the file.
• It may also take the student a day to get that professors email (which is likely intentional on the students part) – thus giving the student a minimum of 2-3 more days after the original due date to get the actual document completed.
• The professor just assumes that something happened to that particular file, not assuming anything is fishy with the interaction with the student.
• Meanwhile, the student is taking the extra time to get the assignment done.
• Once it’s complete the student emails the actual file to the professor without him/her knowing anything that’s gone on.
• The student is not likely to be marked down for being late because it was an “unkown error” that occured.