Chegg Inc (NYSE:CHGG), the online tutor and academic answer provider, has enjoyed a nice ride since March, when Covid-19 forced schools to close their campuses. The stock is up 150% since St. Patrick’s Day.

And to their credit, Chegg has helped turn in the cheaters. When schools or professors ask, Chegg turns over the account info of students who accessed forbidden material or sought or received answers to exam questions from “tutors.” Where accounts match student e-mail addresses or it can be inferred, it does not take Sherlock Holmes to make the case.

The students, not being absolutely stupid, have long shared Chegg accounts. Why cheat under your own name when you can use someone else’s? And, knowing that Chegg is now cooperating with schools, students have also stopped signing up for Chegg with their real names.

Now, imagine that Chegg wants to verify a subscriber’s identity on their phone. Or pair an account to a unique laptop. Rather than do that, rather than expose themselves to more trackable evidence of cheating, students who use Chegg to cheat, simply won’t use it. In other words, rather that boosting new accounts, more authentication may actually reduce them.

Further, account usage and subscriptions may also slip as students become aware that Chegg is outing them to schools. Or as more schools become aware that they can get that information and do.

If that happens, and how big a dent it can cause, depends on how many of Chegg’s paying users are using it to cheat versus how many are using it to actually, honestly study. My sense, is it’s far more of the former, very few of the latter. If that’s the case, Chegg’s policy of cooperation in cheating inquires and their efforts to limit account sharing may turn tailwinds into headwinds in short order.

Image: Chegg