Rampant cheating?

I'm no grandmaster, obviously, but I swear that a lot of users on this site use chess engines to calculate prospective moves. The thing is...  it's hard to tell if they are using a chess engine or not. 

I don't want to pretend I know exactly how many people are or aren't cheating, but if people are, what is Chess.com doing to discourage it? My guess is, unless it's blatantly clear and all but obvious, nothing. 

There is a cheating forum in which you can discuss it: http://www.chess.com/groups/view/cheating-forum

If you suspect someone of cheating, then analyze the game with an engine. If he only makes the best moves in a 50-move game, then it surely gets suspicious. You can report him, with the proof you obtained, at https://support.chess.com/customer/portal/emails/new

See also: https://support.chess.com/customer/portal/articles/1444879-cheaters-cheating-what-you-need-to-know

Well, somebody could well play inferior moves for most of the game, knowing that his opponent isn't likely to find the move to refute them, and then at critical points just play the best move. This type of cheating is more difficult to detect.

Lol, likewise. 

Especially as that kind of thing could happen naturally without anything underhand going on (making a bunch of bad moves and then making a few good ones by accident).

Or a weaker player could just happen to luck into a situation that happens to be one of their strengths... 

I doubt he would deliberately play inferior moves, he will just play at his level, which involves inferior or bad moves.

It is true that they can turn their engine on at critical positions, but then again, amateur games are full of blunders, and are rather decided by these blunders than accurate play from both sides till one crucial point.

Also, if they suddenly play only the best moves for 20 moves in row in a rook vs rook endgame with pawns, then this will also be suspicious.

It is hard to include all cases. Just make a personal judgement after analyzing the game with an engine.

Sounds good, will do. 

What I am saying is that somebody could play the top 5th or 6th engine move for most of the game (not suspicious at all) and then play one of the top three at critical points.

I don't like the way so many people just assume cheating is "rampant" . I don't understand why it would be. It really is a weird thing to do, seeing that the only reward for having a good rating is feeling good about your ability. I know there are weird people who do weird things but the fact that it's weird kind of suggests to me that its probably the exception and not all that common - otherwise it wouldn't be weird.

Anyway, I'm positive that it is very UNcommon at my rating level, and on top of that, it's inconsequential to you if your opponent is cheating. Because for whatever reason, their rating is close to yours. Cheating or not, their game is at your level, so who cares anyway? If your rated at say, 1900, and the cheater's win/loss history lands them at that same rating I don't see how it matters to you whether or not they cheat. You still face the same win/loss probability, and the fact that you're not cheating means you get to actually have fun playing, feel personal satisfaction if you win, and get to learn something from the game, win or lose.

Also, how could you tell if someone rated 1900 or more is cheating in a particular game just by looking at a computer analysis? When I have my "good" games analysed, even me, at my meager "online" rating of less than 1600, there are often no blunders at all, and the total of the "mistakes" and "innacuracies" can be less than 25% of the moves. I would assume that someone who plays at like, 1900 or more, those numbers would usually all be close zero, no?