I'm outside this world but what always strikes me is the risk/reward gamble that cheaters are taking. By the time they are caught cheating, they have invested

I'm outside this world but what always strikes me is the risk/reward gamble that cheaters are taking. By the time they are caught cheating, they have invested dozens of years if not decades into a career that is now pretty much dead. Is there a life-after-cheating story in the relevant field? I can't imagine much of one. Part-time lecturer/tutor in a fourth rate school, perhaps. Of course, that presumes a moment in time where they begin cheating, risking it all. If they were cheating all along, from age 12 onward, maybe stopping is the problem.