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To increase the marketing of their services, essay mills are now using comparison websites. According to an expert on academic integrity and cheating, there are over a thousand sites on one comparison site. Many of these sites provide buy-one-get-one-free or loyalty schemes, and when students try to withdraw, they can become the victims of blackmail, targeted by fake legal letters. The UK Government is introducing legislation to ban essay mills and advertising for them, but as most are based overseas, experts fear they are beyond the reach of the legislation.

Although steps have been taken by the Irish authorities, such as the enactment of legislation penalizing essay mills, officials believe that universities need targeted funding to help protect the quality and integrity of teaching and learning. Reports show that 10% of students may have used contract cheating services and they can be difficult to detect as they can go undetected by plagiarism detection software.