Diploma Mills Are Easy to Spot
The rule is don't pay money to any college, particularly an online college until you check to see that it's accredited with one of the few regional or national college accreditation organizations.
Legitimate for-profit degree and non-degree granting institutions are fully accredited or licensed by accreditation agencies approved by the United States Department of Education through regional, state and national accrediting agencies.
Although some diploma mills have official looking seals, post pictures of campuses on their website and
end their web address in ".edu", they're a fraud.
Warning signs are:
Little or no tests or papers
No buildings or physical campus
No classes or professors
No listing with official accrediting organizations
Degrees based solely on life experience rather than coursework
Names similar to reputable schools
It's pretty easy to spot a diploma mill. They advertise with tiny ads in magazines, they have spamlike internet ads, their internet name does not end with .edu (even though it's not that hard to register a web site with a .edu) and it's really easy to get a degree from them. Just pay a few hundred bucks.
If that's not enough, run their name through:
chea.org, council for higher education accreditation
You can even run their name through the Better Business Bureau at bbb.org. If somebody complained about them, it's there.
You need a degree from an accredited university if you plan to go on to graduate studies. Colleges only accept undergrad applicants with accredited degrees.
On top of that, it's fraud to misrepresent yourself as a person with several academic degrees from unaccredited colleges when applying for a job because they're not real degrees recognized by anyone other than the diploma mill.
It's common sense. If you pay anything under two thousand bucks to get a degree in a few weeks to a few months, you know it's a worthless piece of paper that looks like a legitimate degree but it's just a piece of paper.
Diploma mills often have names similar to well-known colleges or universities but fail to mention an accrediting agency or they name a fake accrediting agency that the made up.
The College Rip-Off/ Fake Accrediting Agencies
The really bad thing about college degrees nowadays, particularly online colleges, is that they create fake or pseudo-fake accrediting agencies for distance education and e-learning so when you ask if they're accredited, they say yes and then tell you the name of some organization like The Distance Education-Online College Accrediting Agency.
Then there are the career colleges. Don't assume that if they say they're accreditted with some organization that the diploma they give you will be the entry-way into a skilled profession. You have to investigate the school by asking your state or provincial dept of education about it then contact the professional/ trade organization of your chosen field and ask them if a diploma from ABS Career College will make you qualified to work in that field.
As far as I'm concerned, the only legitimate accrediting agencies for colleges are the several regional ones and the national one that covers colleges whose degrees are recognized around the world by other colleges or professional licensing organizations.
I've seen at least half a dozen so-called e-learning accrediting organizations. Who started them? What are they accredited for? Are their degrees recognized if you want to apply to a mainstream graduate school or professional licensing.
Stick with the few mainstream accreditting agencies.
multiculturaladvantage.com/education/student-
loans/save-money-protect-yourself-when-getting-accredited-college-degree.asp
geteducated.com, go to unrecognized-fake-and-dubious-online-college-accrediting-agencies
credentialwatch.org/non/agencies.shtml, be wary of nonrecognized accreditation agencies
degree.net/guides/accreditation_faqs.html
quackwatch.org/04consumereducation/nonrecorg.html
Unaccredited Accrediting Agencies/ Fake or Useless Accreditation Associations
People not only set up fake schools but then in the same ad say they are accreditted by some agency they just made up like World Council on Higher Education Accreditation or the E-Learning Accreditation Agency, two agencies I just made up.
Just to whet your appetitie, I won't call the following list fake accrediting agencies, just say that they have no accreditation with legitimate, government-sanctioned accrediting agencies.
Anybody can make up some accrediting agency that sounds good and then say they have been accredited by it.
As you can see, through the website alone, at first blush, they come off very official looking and sounding.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_unrecognized_accreditation_associations_of_higher_learning
afodl.com, assn. for online distance learning.
agc-usa.org, accreditation governing commission of the united states of america.
anuca.org, american notable universities and colleges assn.
aode.org, assn. of open and distance education.
aoaa.org, assn. for online academic accreditation.
apics.com, academy for the promotion of international cultural and scientific exchange.
boua.org, board of online universities accreditation.
boxfreeconcepts.com/iafu/gc/gcd001, international assn. of fake universities.
ciea.org, council for international education accreditation.
eqac.org, educational quality accrediting commission.
heac.org, higher education accrediting commission.nahighered.org/accreditation
internetaccreditation.biz
n-d-l-a-c.com, national distance learning accreditation council.
usdetc.org, united states distance education and training council
usias.org, international accreditation society.
Fake College Degrees/ Degree Mills
Diploma mills are big business because people buy degrees from official sounding colleges and universities and use them to get jobs, upgrade their current pay grade at their job or to otherwise inflate themselves.
The problem in general is that very few people know a fraction of most of 3800+ accredited colleges and universities in the United States by name so when someone puts a college name down on a resume, they don't know offhand if it's a real or fake college.
In addition, the degree mill people create college names that sound remarkably similar to colleges and universities that already exist or they take the name of a college that currently exists in one state and set up a fake college with an identical name in another state, further fooling the uninitiated.
They also do this with famous colleges in other countries like in Britain. Everybody has heard of Oxford and Cambridge University. How about Oxford and Cambridge College in the United States?
Sometimes they don't even bother with a fake name or an identical name in another state. There are counterfeiting services calling themselves Degree Replacement Services who make identical copies of real degrees from real schools, complete with transcripts.
Another one they do is they take the name of an existing university like Cornell and simply put the word "state" into it thus Cornell University becomes Cornell State University and to the uninitiated, it sounds like the real one.
Another simple switch is to change the word University to College. Pepperdine University can be changed to Pepperdine College and most people won't know it's a fake school.
There are some places that operate legally as propriety schools in a state which means that it is a for-profit school by following the minimal rules and may issue a doctorate after you take a month's worth of classes from their website and do a 50 page essay but this is still fake because it doesn't come from a college or university accredited with one of the few legitimate accrediting agencies.
State approval as to what constitutes a school according to state law is worthless. What matters is that a school has to be accredited such that a degree from there will be valid in all 50 states and the rest of the world. Some states have liberal laws regarding their definition of a school, college or university which some con artists take advantage of but this means nothing on a national or international level.
The love guru of the 1990s, John Gray with his Venus Mars books, got his doctorate from an unaccredited school which I won't name because of the many lawsuits filed by these schools who feel insulted at being called diploma mills (and as far as I know, his ex-wife, love guru Barbara D'Angelis did too with her infomercial and appearances on Oprah) which he put prominently on the cover of all his books (Phd) but what gets me is that all these TV shows accepted him as an expert with a Phd without checking on his credentials.
If he had presented himself as an expert as is without the Phd after his name because he was so naturally wise and inspired, that's one thing but he lied, pretending to have studied at an accredited university and earned a real doctorate. That's fraud. It's criminal but people are doing this all the time these days.
People are reluctant to speak publicly against degree mills for fear of getting sued. Even though law enforcement and some politicians are crusading against fake diploma mills, all the laws and law enforcement in the United States really won't do that much good because the degree mills have already moved offshore.
The FBI at fbi.gov had a program called Operation DipScam which they used to shut down diploma mills located in the United States. This is now over but they still work on these cases from a fraud angle (US Code, Title 18, section 1344, fraud by wire and section 2320, trademark violation when imitating real universities).
The U.S. Postal Service, usps.gov, goes after people for mail fraud, US Code, Title 18, section 1341.
In order to get teeth, Interpol has to get serious about this crime. The internet has made it so easy to get mail order degrees. Because it's so easy, the onus must go in the hands of employers to check out every potential employee and even current ones.
Degree mills operate out of European or Caribbean countries, have a website presence, advertise in magazines and newspapers, take credit card orders and send paper packages through major delivery services, often marked as lawyers' papers or something like that which nobody checks at borders since it's only paper and not likely to explode or carry drugs.
The average citizen doesn't think it's a big deal until you see a list of all the people who have used fake degrees to not only get jobs but to get jobs that could jeopardize the public safety, national security and could even be used as a front for criminal activity.
Fake doctors have used fake degrees to get jobs where they raped patients. I'm sure a fake MBA out there got a job then embezzled the company's money.
If you are an employer or another person checking on a person's academic qualifications, don't call the number the person gives you claiming it's the registrar's number of their college.
Some of them are so sophisticated that they set up phone numbers posing as registrars if somebody calls asking to verify the person's academic credentials.
If you don't want to be taken in by a phony academic degree on a resume, one of your current employees working for you based on a phony degree(s) or a current employee getting a pay raise because he or she just got a phony degree, checking up on them is a two-step process:
1.) You have to first determine that the college they say they graduated from exists and is accredited. Don't trust just typing the college name into a website and seeing what comes back because I personally have seen elaborate websites with nice photographs of regal looking buildings, etc., the only problem being that all these photos were of buildings other than what they were presented as. You have to go to the accrediting agencies I discuss elsewhere in this book, find the one that is appropriate and check to see if this college exists and is accredited.
2.) Once you determine if a college is actually accredited, you call, fax, e-mail or send a letter to their registrar's office, to a sub-department called something like the Academic Records Verification Office or the Degree Verification Office.
You explain who you are, a prospective employer, an organization doing a security check, etc. They may ask for permission from the person first as in a written letter/ fax/ e-mail and/ or his or her Social Security Number which they want you to present to them so they know that this person you're checking up on authorized you to verify their degrees.
They look up the name and give you this information. Some may want a fee for this service payable by credit card. Some will do it for free.
If you run a fairly big company, get someone to give your human resources people a lecture in the subject of fake degrees or give them this article and put a page in your company manual saying that anyone using a fake degree to obtain employment or raise their pay level will be criminally and civilly charged with fraud, i.e. theft because you are stealing by misrepresenting yourself as someone more qualified than you actually are.
Aside from an employer looking to verify the academic credentials of potential employees, there are other places you have to worry about bogus degrees. If you plan to get any professional work done in any capacity, you might consider verifying this person's academic credentials.
If you're in business, you have to be wary of any professionals or experts you work with. Journalists should verify the credentials of all people they interview passing themselves off as experts. Lawyers and prosecutors should check out any "experts" in their court trials.
Clever diploma mill owners are getting more advanced. They not only produce the degrees. They have the fake transcripts, a phone number in case a potential employer wants to do an attendance check at the registrar's office and they even make up their own accrediting agencies.
The FBI and Interpol are now sometimes taking diploma mills seriously after they have caught people with fake degrees working at sensitive government facilities.
For the employers, they could be liable if they hire somebody unqualified posing as a professional whose credentials they don't check. I've seen stories about fake neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, pharmacists, astrophysicists, etc. It seems like nobody checks.
These diploma mills make up these fake university names that sound similar to real ones, make up some official sounding accrediting agency, get some high quality digital printing presses and they're in business.
There are two types of fake degrees, the place that sets itself up as a college with an official sounding name similar to one that already exists and advertises in magazines and on the web for easy degrees for a few hundred bucks so you'll get you a good looking degree from an unaccredited university which you could put on your resume and if anybody checks, the worst that could happen is you lose your job unless you're trying to impersonate a doctor or lawyer.
The second kind of fake degree are the places that can make you a degree that looks almost like the ones from existing universities along with transcripts or if you're good enough, you could make it up yourself with all the technology around these days.
They advertise these services as Degree Replacement Services, implying that they are merely replacing a legitimate degree their customers already have but somehow lost so they are just making another copy for him but, of course, we all know this is a load of bull. It's all about getting fake degrees.
They can make you authentic looking degrees from such places as Princeton University which could get you a job for such general fields like business administration or liberal arts but I wouldn't advise you to use it for a job where you're actually directly involved in people's lives in a significant way like medicine, law, psychology or counseling in any way because you could get arrested for criminal fraud and sued civilly on top of it.
Honorary degrees have the same value, they're worthless for real wisdom except for the illusion of grandeur they put forth to the owner and any other suckers who are impressed by such things as letters after one's name which is one of the reasons I think it's all a joke, because I live by my innate wisdom. I don't buy into the prestige of degrees much but then again, I'm an outsider. I purposely try to live as far away from the system as I can except for writing these books.
The internet domains.edu and.ac (used in Britain for academic) are spozed to be used only for legitimate academic institutions but don't trust this. They haven't cleaned it up yet although a company called Educause which issues the.edu domain claims to be working on it. To find out who owns an educational website, go to:
whois.educause.net/edudomain/whois.asp
Some buy mailing lists of college graduates and send them direct mail pieces offering quick graduate degrees.
In this post-Enron/ Worldcom era, don't expect sympathetic treatment if you use a fake degree for any reason and get caught.
Some Diploma Mill State Laws
California Diploma Mill Laws
Cal. Education Code #94050
Makes it a misdemeanor for an unauthorized business or other organization presenting themselves as an institution of higher education to use the term "college" or "university".
Colorado Diploma Mill Laws
Colo. Rev. Stat. #23-2-104(4)
Prohibits a school or agent from making any statement or representation to offer educational services if the school or agent knows the statement to be materially false or misleading. Prohibits a school or agent from inaccurately representing the nature or integrity of the school or its educational services.
Indiana Diploma Mill Laws
Ind. Code #21-17-3
Requires all postsecondary proprietary educational
institutions to be accredited.
Maine Diploma Mill Laws
Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 20A #10801(3), (4), (7), 10802, 10804
Defines a "diploma mill" as an institution of higher education operating without accreditation or supervision of a state or a nationally recognized professional agency and granting diplomas that are either fraudulent or, because or lack of proper standards, worthless. Makes it a Class C crime for issuing or manufacturing false academic degrees.
Requires the department (of education) to provide,
via the internet, information to protect students, businesses, etc. by listing the names of known diploma mills, degree mills, accreditation mills and substandard institutions of higher education.
Makes it a Class D crime to knowingly use a false academic degree to obtain a job, promotion, higher compensation or admission into an institute of higher learning.
Michigan Diploma Mill Laws
Mich. Comp. Laws #390.1604, 1605
Prohibits an entity that is not a qualified institution of
higher education from issuing or manufacturing a
false academic credential.
Prohibits knowingly using a false academic credential to obtain employment, promotion, higher compensation, admission or in connection to any occupation.
Missouri Diploma Mill Laws
Mo. Ann. Stat. #173.604
Prohibits earning a certificate or degree solely on the basis of payment or fee, credit earned at another school(s), life experience, testing out, research or
writing, or any combination of these factors.
Nevada Diploma Mill Laws
Nev. Rev. Stat. #394.700
Prohibits using a false or misleading degree in connection with any business, employment, occupation, profession, public office or admission to
any institution of higher education. Defines a degree
as false or misleading if a person has not fulfilled the
requirements for the course of study or is awarded
based on more than 10% of the recipient's
documented life experience and not based upon
actual completion of academic work. Makes it a
gross misdemeanor to use the term "university" or
"college" without authorization from the commission.
New Jersey Diploma Mill Laws
N.J. Stat. Ann. #18A:3-15
Prohibits a person buying or selling any diploma purporting to confer an academic degree of an institute of higher education. Prevents the use of a fraudulent academic degree in connection with any sort of
occupation. Violators are liable of a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per offense.
North Dakota Diploma Mill Laws
N.D. Cent. Code #15-20.4-04, -05, -11, -12, -15, -
17
Requires all postsecondary educational institutions to be accredited by national or regional accrediting agencies recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Prohibits any entity from granting any type of academic credentials or using "university", "institute", or "college" without authorization from the
state board for career and technical education; it is a
Class B misdemeanor to do so. Makes it a Class C
felony to knowingly issue or manufacture false
academic degrees. Requires the state board for
career and technical education to provide, via the
internet, information to protect students and businesses from a person who issues, manufactures or uses false academic credentials.
Forbids the use a false academic degree to gain employment, a promotion or higher compensation, admission into an institute of higher learning, or in connection with any business trade, profession or occupation. Makes it a Class A misdemeanor to do so.
Oregon Diploma Mill Laws
Or. Rev. Stat. #348.594, 348.609
Defines "diploma mill" as a school that a court or public body has found to engage in dishonest, fraudulent, or deceptive practices related to the awarding of degrees, academic standards or student learning requirements, or an entity without legal authority as a school to issue degrees valid as credentials.
Prohibits a person who receives a degree from diploma mill from using disclaimer to claim or represent that person possesses academic degree.
Rhode Island Diploma Mill Laws
R.I. Gen. Laws #16-59-27
Prohibits the purchase and sale of academic degrees wherein the degree is obtained on the basis of a combination of a payment of fee and the attainment of academic credit for so-called life experiences, without the applicant undertaking any academic coursework at the entity or institution purporting to issue the degree.
Tennessee Diploma Mill Laws
Tenn. Code Ann. #49-7-2006, #39-17-112
Defines "diploma mill" as a nontraditional, unaccredited postsecondary school that offers degrees for a relatively low flat fee, promotes the award of academic credits based on life experience and does not require any classroom instruction. Makes it a class A misdemeanor to issue, sell or manufacture a false academic degree.
Makes it a class C misdemeanor to use or claim to have a false academic degree to obtain employment, promotion or admission into an institution of higher education.
Texas Diploma Mill Laws
Tex. Education Code Ann. #3-61.219, 300, 301, 302
Makes it a crime for an agency without accreditation from a recognized source to issue fraudulent academic credentials. Requires the state board of education to disseminate information through the board's Web site including: the name of each educational institution accredited, authorized or approved to grant degrees; the name of each educational institution whose degrees the board has determined may not be legally used; and any other information considered by the commissioner to be useful to protect the public from fraudulent, substandard or fictitious degrees.
Virginia Diploma Mill Laws
Va. Code Ann. #23-2763.1, 10, 12
Prohibits issuing or manufacturing fraudulent academic credentials. Requires degree granting institutions claiming to be a "college" or "university"
to be fully accredited by an accrediting agency
recognized by the United States Department of
Education. Requires the State Council for Higher
Education to maintain a list of postsecondary schools
holding valid certificates and accreditation.
Prohibits any person from using a fraudulent academic credential in connection with any business, trade, profession or occupation.
Prohibits any person from using a fraudulent academic credential to obtain employment, promotion, licensure or admission to an institution of higher education.
Washington Diploma Mill Laws
Wash. Rev. Code #9A.60.070 and 28B.85.030, .220
Requires a degree-granting institution to be accredited, have their application for accreditation pending, or have been granted a waiver or exemption from accreditation. Granting a degree without following this is guilty of a gross misdemeanor which could result in a fine of $1,000 and/or jail time of up to a year. Makes it a class C felony to knowingly issue false academic credentials.
Considers it a gross misdemeanor if a person knowingly uses false academic credentials to obtain employment, a license to practice some profession, a promotion or increase in compensation, admission into an academic program, or to gain a position in the government with authority over another individual (regardless of compensation).
Diploma Mill Websites
For a list of accredited institutions, go to: ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/
usnei/us/edlite-accreditation.html
chea.org/degreemills/frmPaper.html
ed.gov/students/prep/college/diplomamills/index.html, learn about diploma mills and accreditation.
osac.state.or.us/oda/diploma_mill.html, diploma mills; substandard or fraudulent colleges.
coastal.edu/library/presentations/mills2.html onlineunivesity.com/fake degrees?
revver.com/video/634825/fake-degrees-degree-in-10-days
ibhe.state.il.us/consumerInfo/diplomsMill.htm.
chea.org/degreemills
ibhe.state.il.us/consumerInfo/diplomaMill.html
ed.gov/international/usnei/us/fraud.doc.
maine.gov/education/highered/Mills/Mills.htm
cimea.it/files/fileusers/diploma_mills_luca_lantero_en.pdf, degree mills: non-accredited and irregular higher education institutions.
degree.net/html/diploma_mills.html
ripoffreport.com/colleges-and-universities
michigan.gov/documents/non-accreditedschools_78090_7.pdf, colleges and universities not accredited by chea.
diplomamillnews.blogspot.com
det.nsw.edu.au/aboutus/higheredu/fakedegrees.htm, warning - fake degrees, new south wales department of education and training, australia
diplomamills.nl/index_engels.htm, centre for information on diploma mills.
ed.gov/students/prep/college/diplomamills
hawaii.gov/dcca/areas/ocp/udgi/lawsuits
maine.gov/education/highered/non-accredited/alphalist.htm, usa (maine).
hcch.e-vision.nl/upload/wop/2008pd05e.pdf, the application of the apostille convention to diplomas including those issued by diploma mills.
michigan.gov/documents/non-accreditedschools_78090_7.pdf
oct.ca/publications/pdf/capsle_e.pdf, degree mills and detecting fraudulent credentials, ontario college of teachers
osac.state.or.us/oda/unaccredited.aspx, oregon.
thecb.state.tx.us/apps/consumerinfo/notx.cfm, texas.
ugc.ac.in/inside/fakealerts.html, india.
Fake Degree Resources/ Scam School Websites
Currently the most common ways the degree mills operate is through tiny classified ads in left wing, alternative, business and men's type magazines.
They send out spam on the internet and do pop-up and banner advertising. Anyone can pay to get a high placement on search engines. Beware of that if you use search engines looking for schools.
Beware of any content anywhere on the internet about any educational institution until you check to see that the school is legitimately accredited.
If you're interested in such degrees, look through the ads in business and money magazines/ newspapers and magazines catering to the 25-39 year old adult male demographic. Some of them are or were Economist (economist.com), Inc. (inc.com), Business Week (businessweek.com), International Herald Tribune (iht.com), Rolling Stone (rollingstone.com), Soldier of Fortune (soldieroffortune.com), High Times (hightimes.com), Psychology Today (psychologytoday.com), Army Times, Navy Times, Utne Reade (utne.com) and USA Today (usatoday.com).
Simply go to the library and look through the ads at the back of some of the magazines there. Some of them advertise as degree replacement services for lost ones.
Try #378.2 or LB2388 at the library.
Type the following terms into search engines:
Counterfeit degrees
Counterfeit diplomas
Degree fraud
degree mill
diploma mill
fake degrees
mail order degrees
ed.gov/students/prep/college/diplomamills/index.html, learn about diploma mills and accreditation.
degree.net/html/diploma_mills.html
degree.net
noveltyworksdegrees.com
phonydiploma.com
barryyeoman.com/articles/scamschools.html
aacrao.org, american assn. of collegiate registrars and admissions officers, publishes books on educational systems worldwide including a few books on fake schools and degree mills.
acenet.edu, activists against degree mills.
bbb.org, better business bureau, a little bit of info about diploma mills.
degreeinfo.com, identifies many fake schools.
degreemills.com
degree.net
degree.net/html/diploma_mills
ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-accred-fraud
ftc.gov, deals with unfair business practices such as diploma mills.
interpol.int, international police, starting to take degree fraud a little more seriously.
irs.gov, can and will prosecure degree mills not paying taxes or claiming nonprofit status fraudulently.
michigan.gov/documents/non-accreditedschools_78090_7.pdf
naces.org, national assn. of credential evaluation services.
nea.org, national education assn., activists against degree mills.
osac.state.or.us/oda/diploma_mill, list of diploma mills.
realisticdiploma.com, replica diplomas.
usps.com/postalinspectors, investigate mail fraud including degree mills.
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