Fake College Degree

The competition in today’s job market has caused a surge in the purchasing of a fake college degree. Many people are looking to embellish their resumes in order to get a better paying job or to beat out their coworkers for a better position in their company. This is not a new problem, but the internet has made it easier for this practice to take place.

There are more than 100,000 bogus degrees sold in the United States alone each year. A third of those degrees are postgraduate degrees. It is estimated that these bogus degrees will cost that average person around $1,000. Diploma mills and degree mills are the two different types of companies that will issue a fake college degree. There is a difference between the two. The diploma mill will issue a bogus diploma that was supposedly granted by a real university. The degree mill will actually set up a website to pose as a real college. This website allows for a person to purchase their degree and a prospective employer can contact this “college” to verify the authenticity of the degree. The degree mill will award a person their diploma based on their life experience or require about a weeks worth of coursework before giving the diploma to the person. It is believed that this coursework is for the benefit of the consumer. It will help in convincing the person that they have earned their fake college degree.

People from all walks of life will purchase these degrees. It is illegal to hand out degrees without the approval of a government agency, but these mills are set up in a way that can be hard to track down the owners of the sites. Some of these mills are becoming more sophisticated. They are now carrying what looks to be an accreditation that will make them seem like a real university or college. In order to get this accreditation, they use an accreditation mill. This makes it harder for authorities to keep tabs on the fake colleges and employers to spot a fake college degree. There are steps an employer can take in order to ensure the person they are promoting or hiring actually has a legitimate degree.

Check with the government run websites to see if the college or university is accredited. In the case of a diploma mill purchased degree, the information on the degree will need to be verified through the college. Ask the person if they are able to provide a copy of their thesis and the contact details of their student advisor. If they are unable to produce either of these pieces of information, then you can guarantee that you have been handed a fake college degree. The quality of the degree is another giveaway. If the text is not centered or it is misaligned then the degree was not stamped with proper school seal or emblem, but printed on a commercial printer. The paper should be a high quality paper and there should be no misspelling of words.