Watch Out For Fake College Diplomas

By Alicia Hunter


The demand for phony qualifications has existed since the start of higher education. Reports suggest that diploma mills have been a lucrative business since the mid nineteenth century. The internet has provided a global marketplace for fake college diplomas.

This example of the token coursework required by some diploma mills is typical of the way that misinformation is used to persuade customers to fall for degree scams. Some gullible people will actually believe that they have earned a qualification as valid as that from a genuine college. Other less scrupulous individuals are well aware that they are buying phony credentials to fraudulently get ahead in the rat-race.

E-commerce businesses blatantly advertise "authentic fake diplomas". They sell forged transcripts from the university of your choice. Some claim to use the same paper as high schools and universities. Others boast that they can provide customers with genuine college diploma layouts, left blank for the buyer to fill in with their own details. Belford University's website offers "degrees based on experience within seven days". There is nothing illegal about any of this until the purchaser uses these credentials to fraudulently apply for employment.

In Canada, officials busted a counterfeit degree ring and recovered dozens of stunningly realistic copies of degrees from prestigious Canadian higher education institutions. Even watermarks from university letterheads had been replicated. Professors in genuine West African universities are selling degrees on the side. Queensland Hospital, Australia was found to have medical personnel with fake medical school credentials.

Phony medical degrees are to be had from overseas diploma mills often based in Africa. The St. Luke School of medicine peddles such wares from Liberia and Ghana. Dubious medical schools in Senegal and Liberia gained false accreditation from the UK General Medical Council according to BBC reports. An immense shortage of hospital workers in Australia creates the situation where huge numbers of candidates apply for these jobs using fake college certificates. Queensland Hospital discovered medical personnel working with false credentials.

There is no law against buying such a degree. It is only an offence to use a fake diploma to obtain a job fraudulently. The Federal government can do little to regulate international business. Individual states can prosecute anyone using a phony degree, if they can be caught in the first place. Each US state has a responsibility to legislate on the manufacture and use of fake certificates. Many state laws are very lax and the policing of such white-collar crimes is equally loose. Other countries have made the practice illegal, but there is no large-scale enforcement in place.

Laura Callahan, Chief Information Officer with the Department of Homeland Security, was one high-profile example of someone who claimed to believe that this token coursework made their fake certificates as valid as those from an authentic educational establishment.

Over one million US graduates hold on-line degrees, but ninety-five percent of prospective employers choose candidates with traditional degrees. The growth of legitimate on-line education produces fertile ground for degree mills. This prevalence of fake college diplomas undermines the value of legitimate on-line higher education.




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