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This is a throwaway account, for numerous reasons.
I have a dilemma. Recently I have come into possession of an email of a person I dislike highly who goes to my college. There is a story behind this, but I don't think it is relevant to my question.
In this email, i have found out that he has been giving out test answers to certain students (he has access to these tests due to his job/position he has at my college). I happen to know one of these students personally as well, which makes this personal to me. This along with the knowledge of him cheating on his girlfriend helps me verify that he is indeed a scumbag,
So now my question is do I sit here and do nothing and pretend I never saw it? Honestly the reason I logged on his account in the first place was to look for some type of dirt (a reason that again does not matter to my question), but this was way more then I expected.
Or do I report this, as its terrible how someone can just give away free answers where there are those who put so much effort. And as the fact that he honestly deserves it in my opinion, but I dont know how i would deal with the fact that I might be ruining peoples lives.
I am not sure what to do.
User was banned for this post.
 
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If it's actual proof (and not just a casual conversation that could be joking), you have an obligation to turn him in. So many other students are attempting to pass courses with honest hard work, that it would be irresponsible to not penalize those who cheat. Academic integrity is a huge deal in most (if not all) schools, and as long as you're certain about what he did, then you should come forward with concrete evidence.
The only thing that's questionable is how you obtained this knowledge. If you learned it by invading someone else's privacy, then you're pretty much a jerk too. Also, can't he just delete his e-mail and remove your evidence?
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Stay out of other people's email accounts.
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Calgary25991 Posts
On April 14 2013 21:47 zf wrote:
Stay out of other people's email accounts.
Seriously. You need to examine your life if you are logging into someone else's email specifically looking to cause trouble. Stop it.
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If you wanna turn him in you're probably gonna have to go too, logging into someones email is pretty much a no-go.
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On April 14 2013 21:58 Chill wrote:Seriously. You need to examine your life if you are logging into someone else's email specifically looking to cause trouble. Stop it.
Basically, if you report this and they ask you how you got the info, the momenet you say, "I was on his email," you are gone. That is a worse offense than cheating; that is hacking, which is a fineable offense, and they can sue you for personal injury since you will get both of you and this other guy kicked out of college. Just because you don't like somebody doesn't mean you can hack their email. On the subject of the cheating, you have fucked yourself over here, you have come across information illegally, which is something the other guy can say and then be protected from because of the bill of rights. On the other hand, now you know this guy cheats and you are no better for it. Just keep quiet, just because people are cheating doesn't mean you need to make it your battle.
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Report to the professors that some of their test answers are being leaked. If it's for an upcoming test, you can provide some answers as proof.
Do it anonymously and dont mention any names.
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Report him anonymously, and provide proof.
EDIT: Zocat, uhhh, why not provide names? If you're going to report cheating, you should damn well be willing to report the individuals involved.
Not that I'm advocating this and not that this makes you any less scummy, but there's a really easy, believable explanation you can come up with to explain your presence on this guy's email...
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Yes, I think you have a moral responsibility to turn him in, but at the same time you made a mistake by going on his account.the best bet is to report him anonymously somehow. Maybe forward the emails to the prof or something, whatever provides proof while keeping your name out of it. Good luck man.
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I'll be honest here. Considering you can be thrown under the bus here, let it be.
It's not worth your time. If you've ever read the great gatsby, you are like nick carraway at the end. He doesn't tell the police what he knows about wilson killing gatsby because it benefits him more even if justice would be served otherwise.
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On April 15 2013 01:10 Bippzy wrote:
I'll be honest here. Considering you can be thrown under the bus here, let it be.
It's not worth your time. If you've ever read the great gatsby, you are like nick carraway at the end. He doesn't tell the police what he knows about wilson killing gatsby because it benefits him more even if justice would be served otherwise.
spoiler! you bastard.
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either send copies of the email to the people who will get him fired or blackmail him if your feeling hardcore.
definitely do one of the two though.
w/e you do, do it anonymously because you got the emails illegally. or at least I assume that deliberately accessing an email account that isnt yours is illegal in your country, if its not then w/e. go wild.
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Dont log on to other peoples email accounts.
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On April 14 2013 21:58 Chill wrote:Seriously. You need to examine your life if you are logging into someone else's email specifically looking to cause trouble. Stop it.
This, a thousand times. Deliberately invading someone's privacy looking for dirt to purposely screw with their life/career is far more malicious than someone enabling willing people to risk their own academic careers through cheating.
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Hong Kong9165 Posts
On April 14 2013 21:47 zf wrote:
Stay out of other people's email accounts.
Seriously. While academic dishonesty is bad, the felony you can acquire by fiddling around in people's emails is worse.
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United States22883 Posts
On April 15 2013 02:25 Fyrewolf wrote:Show nested quote +On April 14 2013 21:58 Chill wrote:On April 14 2013 21:47 zf wrote:
Stay out of other people's email accounts. Seriously. You need to examine your life if you are logging into someone else's email specifically looking to cause trouble. Stop it. This, a thousand times. Deliberately invading someone's privacy looking for dirt to purposely screw with their life/career is far more malicious than someone enabling willing people to risk their own academic careers through cheating.
Uh... they're both pretty fucked up.
You shouldn't go into other people's email accounts, but if you work at a school and you're giving test answers to certain students, your career deserves to be over. They're both incredibly huge offenses. I don't know that academic fraud by a school employee isn't illegal either.
It's not just someone who writes essays for money, but has no association to the school. This is an employee using their position to do it.
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On April 14 2013 22:21 docvoc wrote:Show nested quote +On April 14 2013 21:58 Chill wrote:On April 14 2013 21:47 zf wrote:
Stay out of other people's email accounts. Seriously. You need to examine your life if you are logging into someone else's email specifically looking to cause trouble. Stop it. Basically, if you report this and they ask you how you got the info, the momenet you say, "I was on his email," you are gone. That is a worse offense than cheating; that is hacking, which is a fineable offense, and they can sue you for personal injury since you will get both of you and this other guy kicked out of college. Just because you don't like somebody doesn't mean you can hack their email. On the subject of the cheating, you have fucked yourself over here, you have come across information illegally, which is something the other guy can say and then be protected from because of the bill of rights. On the other hand, now you know this guy cheats and you are no better for it. Just keep quiet, just because people are cheating doesn't mean you need to make it your battle.
There's nothing saying that the OP is from the States, but even if he is, wikipedia still says that his evidence is good, it doesn't matter if he came across it illegally or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusionary_rule#Limitations_of_the_rule
Evidence unlawfully obtained from the defendant by a private person is admissible. The exclusionary rule is designed to protect privacy rights, with the Fourth Amendment applying specifically to government officials.
If I were you, I would report him anonymously through email based on what you've told us and assuming he's getting something in return for the tests. Keep in mind, this also probably means that a lot of the people he was giving answers to will get in trouble as well.
Do you know why he's giving out the test answers though? Is he selling them? Asking for favours? Doing it out of the goodness of his heart? If he's selling them, the guy is a scumbag, and I'd report him. You said he has access to the tests because of his position, which means that as an employee of the school, he's abusing his position for profit and compromising the academic integrity of the school at the same time. He deserves to lose his job then.
If you're not ok with potentially fucking up someone's life though, and potentially a lot of the people who he gave test answers to, depending on how seriously your school takes cheating, you could always confront him about it. Tell the guy that you know about what he's doing, but you don't want to get him kicked out of school, so ask him to stop and tell him that if he doesn't, you'll report him to the school. This is pretty ballsy though, and could maybe backfire. You also won't be able to use the email evidence, since he'll know it was you.
So, I guess the last way to deal with it, and it might not actually do anything depending on how people would take it, is to just report to the school and all the profs that their tests are being leaked and used by students to cheat without naming anyone. You won't have any proof for this though, depending on what the emails actually contain, and so it depends on if the profs believe you or not if anything happens. If they don't believe you or they're lazy, they won't do anything and nothing will change. Otherwise, a few of them might change their tests, maybe. So, this is that way where it's less likely anyone will get in trouble, but it's also less likely it will stop at all.
That's basically my thought process on the whole thing as you've presented it, do with it what you will. For reference, I'm a third-year university student who also works as a teaching assistant, so maybe I take cheating more seriously than some and feel an obligation to do something about it.
p.s. How did you get access to his email, if you don't mind me asking?
p.p.s. I'm going to echo some other people here, and say that if you got access to his email illegally, that's pretty fucked up too, and you shouldn't do it again.
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If this dude is rich, blackmail him anonymously. If he isn't, just turn him in already. You've already committed the sin, now get off the toilet and flush already.
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I think you should consider how much you want to fuck with his life carefully, and then act accordingly. I would argue that because this is a personal matter, you should forget the socially established norm that cheaters need to be punished, and look at this only on a personal level. Also you could always hold on to the information as insurance by getting proof and saving it for a time when he is causing problems for you. If such an opportunity never presents itself, you could leave it be and move on. This way any harm visited on him belongs in the what did you expect to happen category, and not the someone is being really mean to me category.
edit: forgot an article
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On April 14 2013 23:11 Zocat wrote:
Report to the professors that some of their test answers are being leaked. If it's for an upcoming test, you can provide some answers as proof.
Do it anonymously and dont mention any names.
This seems like the best answer that I would do. Academic dishonesty is huge but you'll never be forgiven if people know that you were the one who snitched (and looked into his emails). Not to mention the legal repercussions for yourself as well. It's a tough decision but I think if you alert the professors that there IS cheating going on with an anonymous note or something, they might not be able to trace it back to you and you might also get the cheaters caught.
Edit: WTF is up with people telling the op to blackmail him. That's about the WORST thing you could do in this situation. I hope they aren't being serious.
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EPT
