A Reddit user said an essay-writing service he paid during college contacted his employer more than a decade later, threatening to expose his academic misconduct unless he paid again. The post sparked thousands of reactions, with many commenters dismissing the threats as an extortion attempt rather than a career-ending scandal.
The user posted in r/whatdoIdo, explaining that he had paid a company to write a history paper while in college. He wrote that the same service had blackmailed him once before while he still attended school. He said he paid between $1,000 and $2,000 at the time.
Years later, he said the company had found his work email and contacted his employer's HR department and his former university.
“I cheated on a history paper in college and now the service I paid for is trying to blackmail me at my job,” the post’s title read.
The Reddit user wrote that he worked for a company with more than 100,000 employees. He believed HR would likely ignore the email. Still, he worried the blackmail attempt could damage the professional reputation he had built over the last 12 years.
“I know what I did was wrong,” he wrote. “I am really scared. I spent the last 12 years working diligently at work to build a strong reputation and I don’t want my past stupid decision to ruin everything.”
He asked Reddit whether he should admit what happened to his employer, ignore the threats, or pay the company again.
The post quickly attracted thousands of upvotes and comments. Most users urged him not to send another payment.
One commenter wrote, “You paid them $1,000-2,000 last time!? Bro lol wtf hahaha.”
Another added, “You giving them extortion money the first time was your mistake. They know they can bleed you dry dumass [sic].”
Several Reddit users argued that employers would probably ignore an anonymous email about something that happened during college.
“Your job doesn’t care about a history paper in college,” one person wrote.
Another commenter added, “My company is very large (100k+ employees) so there is a good chance my HR VP will just ignore the initial email.”
Others encouraged the poster to stop communicating with the company altogether.
“Don’t pay the blackmail,” one user wrote. “If someone asks you be like ‘yea I paid someone to write a history paper for me in college.’”
Another commenter wrote, “Ignore it. If they follow through say you don’t know anything about it. If they show ‘proof’ you say it’s AI. Don’t give them any more money.”
Some users questioned whether the story was real. Others pointed to the original poster’s Reddit history and joked that unrelated posts caused more concern than the old history paper.
The discussion also highlighted a broader issue. Cybersecurity researchers and universities have warned that contract-cheating services sometimes target former customers with extortion demands. Those services may threaten to report academic misconduct unless victims keep paying.
The Daily Dot could not independently verify the events described in the Reddit post, including the identity of the essay-writing service, the blackmail claims, or the poster's employment details. The details above reflect the anonymous user's account as shared in r/whatdoIdo.
