By Sally Rawsthorne
Publication Date: 2026-02-08 08:30:00
Sneaking into lectures and tutorials, infiltrating group chats, and sending emails pretending to be a professor are some of the increasingly desperate tactics contract cheating companies are using to regain market share lost through generative AI.
Universities across the country say contract fraud, in which students outsource assessments to someone else, has given way to AI fraud. The number of students caught abusing the new technology has increased significantly.
When AI technologies emerged in 2023, most universities banned them. Institutions have gradually eased restrictions and most now allow the use of AI in certain contexts, but not…