What's the 21st Century equivelent to the dog ate my homework?
A corrupted file emailed to a professor.
Corrupted-files.com sells students files of different lengths that are pre-corrupted, letting them buy a few extra days to finish their assignment.
The site's owner answered questions on it's ethics, "I am simply offering a better excuse. It's not cheating in the traditional sense as the student is still doing their own work and not using a roommates' old paper or being foolish enough to purchase one online. If the student is desperate, it is fair to assume he/she has considered these paths. In such a situation, would you rather have a student make up an excuse and hand in their own work a bit late or submit someone else's work on time?"
Personally I just find it fascinating to watch how this type of behavior (lazyness, cheating, pirating) actually drives culture.