This is the kind of thing that makes me all stabby, first thing on a Saturday morning: a company that is selling "corrupted" files students can buy, then e-mail to their profs, and then student innocently goes, "What? You mean the file wouldn't open?" and (so the student thinks) buys himself/herself some extra time to write the assignment they slacked off on.

That is so full of wrongness....

first of all, I can tell, I would say, 80%-90% of the time, when a paper was written at the very last minute - which is what any student taking advantage of that site is going to be doing. Last-minute papers just have a certain "smell" to them.

second, it assumes profs are sufficiently clueless (or overworked) that we are not going to clue into the situation - I bet some profs receive three or four of these for a single assignment, they're going to figure something's up.

third, how hard would it be for someone to do this on their own? I'm no computer whiz but I suspect it's not that hard to do. (For that matter: find someone who has WordPerfect or some archaic word processing software and do it in that, chances are prof won't be able to open the file, or you can make off that it's a software mismatch).

fourth, it's CHEATING.

fifth, if a student has a major real problem, most profs are amenable to extensions. I know I am. I've even given an occasional extension for the "I really don't have a big life issue going on, but I'm just underwater in terms of all the work I have to do for all my classes." I'd rather grant an honest extension than have someone dishonestly e-mail me a fake file.

sixth, it is not a "good excuse." It is enabling people to procrastinate.

seventh, the assumption that profs don't talk to one another, that word of this thing won't get out, and that people won't be busted.

I don't accept e-mailed papers, except in dire circumstances (like, the person is trapped at home by bad weather). And then, if I can't open the file, they don't get credit. Simple as that. And now I have a good reason to put in my syllabi why I don't accept e-mailed papers. Or at the very least, to put in, "If I can't open the file, your grade drops by five points for every fifteen minutes that elapse between my e-mailing you "I CAN'T OPEN THE FILE" and your sending me one that WILL open")

And yes, on the rare occasions that a student e-mails me an assignment, I try opening it immediately. If it won't, I e-mail them right back and say, "The file did not work" and let them know they need to fix it, stat, if they want credit.

I HATE how we have this arms-race going with the cheaters. Many profs (I know, because I'm in this boat and many of my colleagues I've talked to this about are too) never cheated in school, and so some of the more esoteric cheating methods are ones we'd never even think of. It's infuriating how much time it can take - googling "key phrases" in papers to see if they're plagiarized off the internet, cross-checking all student papers (which is a challenge in big classes) to be sure there isn't a "Hey, you do the work and we'll all copy off of you" ring going on, dealing with cell phones and text devices on exam days (rule: they stay off and in the person's bag. If I see one, it needs to be surrendered to me for the rest of the exam time).

I don't buy the originator's claim that professors find it "funny" and let the students get away with it. I wouldn't. And I bet most employers, if they needed a White Paper or a spreadsheet or a TPS report or something by a certain time, would only find it funny in the sense that they get to laugh while they fire the person, if the person sent them a corrupted file instead.

I wonder how long before someone develops a company that will embed a hard-drive-destroying virus in a fake file, so students can "fry" the computers of profs who don't have up to date virus software? 'Cos I could totally see someone thinking that was a good idea.