>Not self email (what is this, amateur hour? lol)

I can assure you that this is, indeed, amateur hour.

>But sending an email with a corrupt file attachment. That way
>you can claim you turned it in, but something messed up in the
>process that was totally out of your hands.
>That will buy them a few days to continue working on it.

This one happens about once a year. A student submits an email with a bad file. It sits at the bottom of my "to grade" priority list for as long as it takes me to get to. And then I reply and assume a good faith mistake even if I know better. They sit on that reply for a day or so while they complete the assignment and then get back to me with "Oh no. I'm so sorry I screwed that up. Please let me know if this file works."

I appreciate that hustle because everybody respects each others' intelligence. This guy is breaking the written rules AND the unwritten ones.