Fraud in the Online Age

Author: John D. Thomas

Date: May 8, 2015

Link: https://www.digitalethics.org/essays/fraud-online-age

First Impressions: The essay probably talks about fraud in the online age, which means the use of wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain. Also, maybe talks about the unethical aspects of online services.

Quote: “So when you combine all three of these services – resume/cover letter writing, homework completion and online class taking – the end result could be someone with great grades and a flawless resume whose actual knowledge and skills are anything but what they appear to be on paper.”

Reflection:

The essay mostly talks about the use of online services for unethical purposes, such as making someone else attend online classes for you, completing your homework, and making you a resume. While reading the essay, it reminded me of a forum on a website that I used to visit. There were different threads talking about homework services, mostly programming and math.I do agree that the use of these services is unethical, say for instance you have homework that is due the next day, given a few weeks ago, and you have not started with it yet. So what you do is go online and look for someone that you can pay to finish your homework for you. On the day of submission, you get a perfect grade and some of your classmates failed even though they worked on their project for weeks. These services prevent a student from learning and can possibly kill their career, since they will depend on these online services to complete their homework for them, and they can just relax and not study at all and when the time comes that they have to take an exam, they fail because they have no idea on what to do.

5 Things I Learned

1. I learned that it is unethical to complete someone’s homework for them.

2. I learned that there are people online who you can pay to do your homework.

3. I learned that when helping someone with their task, we should help them but not to the extent of completing their homework.

4. I learned that there are many websites online that offer homework services.

5. I learned that during a job interview, it is important to not only read the applicant’s resume, but to give him a test to verify whether or not he wrote his resume.

5 Integrative Questions

1. In the case of a student who often fails subjects due to homework not being submitted, is it ethical for him to inquire about these online homework services?

2. Is it considered plagiarism to submit someone else's work as yours even if you paid for it?

3. What should a company do to applicants that use resume writing and how do they find out about it?

4. When is the best time to use these services for school work?

5. Is it alright to make these services take online classes for you, even if there is an emergency need to attend to?