Approximately 30% of resumes submitted to employers contain either fraudulent information regarding employment or educational accomplishments. Companies, in order to avoid costs associated with resume fraud do not adequately and independently confirm information submitted by potential employees. A recent case by Investigative Consultants International revealed that a candidate for a Chief Operating Officer position for our client, contained fraudulent MBA degrees from a diploma mill. Diploma mills, as defined by the US Deparment of Education http://www.ed.gov/students/prep/college/diplomamills/diploma-mills.html are fraudulent “schools” that confer degrees in exchange for monies paid by the recipient of the fraudulent degree. There is no course work, the student does not study anything and the fraudulent degree is awarded to the student who knowingly lists the fraudulent degree on his or her resume. The entities that provide these fake degrees are sophisticated enough to provide fake and fraudulent transcripts to the student so that they can provide what appears to be legitimate degrees to their potential employer. The cost of employee fraud is tremendous. Rochville University, an online school lacking proper accreditation, awarded an MBA to a dog (GetEducated’s pug mascot, Chester Ludlow) for $499.
Yet Rochville diplomascontinue to be touted by hundreds of professionals on the resumes they post to LinkedIn, a popular online networking site.
Besides Rochville, many other schools lacking proper accreditation are listed by LinkedIn users on their public resumes—thousands of professionals claiming fraudulent degrees.
Professionals with Flimsy Paper PedigreesA recent search found 457 LinkedIn members listing distance learning degrees from Rochville, including an assistant vice president at Merrill Lynch Commodities; a language instructor at the University of Virginia; and a criminal justice consultant (retired from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Chief Fraud Division).
Almeda University has been called a degree mill by Alan Contreras, administrator of Oregon’s Office of Degree Authorization. A search of LinkedIn for professionals listing Almeda in their educational profiles yielded 1,791 results. Among them: the lead consultant forensic psychologist at a UK mental health facility, a systems engineer at NASA, and a contract manager at an aerospace firm in Denver.
Why do employers continue to hire people who list fake degrees?
They provide diplomas, transcripts, references, website portals and phone numbers to contact them to obtain verifications.
Unsuspecting employer representatives looking to verify education information, are often unaware that they are dealing with a fake college.
Chester the pug, for instance, received not only a diploma and two sets of college transcripts from Rochville—but also a phone number he could give to any employer seeking to “verify” his college attendance.
Fake Educational Credentials: An Easy ScamOnly about 34 percent of employers check educational qualifications on resumes at all, according to a 2004 study by the Society for Human Resource Management—even though the association found that 30 percent of people inflated their educational achievements on resumes.
Among the minority of employers who do check college credentials, most only check a student’s attendance or graduation dates. Few check whether the university itself is properly accredited.
One reason online degree mill mills continue to thrive is that employers are confused about college accreditation. All degree mills are accredited. The trick is that they are accredited by fake agencies—agencies that they themselves have created.”Rochville claims accreditation by the Board of Online Universities Accreditation and the Universal Council for Online Education Accreditation.
Rochville may indeed be ‘accredited’ by these agencies, but neither agency is recognized as a college accreditor by the U.S. Department of Education—or by any other valid international accrediting body.
Employers on Alert for Education Fraud
The current tough economy has resulted in more would-be employees trying to pass off fake college degrees.
75 percent of people in the United States who buy fake college degrees know exactly what they are doing.
A real online MBA costs more than $35,000, but can raise your earning potential by $10,000 per year If you can get a fake MBA for less than $500 in under 30 days, and qualify instantly for a $10,000 raise that’s more financial temptation than many can tolerate.
The High Cost of Resume Fraud
There is no margin for error anymore—if you hire the wrong person, it costs money to replace them.
Other costs to companies when employees purchase credentials from degree mills:* tuition reimbursement the company gave for the fake degree;
* damage to the company’s reputation, especially if the employee is in a public position and the resume fraud makes the news;
* exposure to litigation if the employee was in a position of public trust or safety (such as a health professional using a supposedly legitimate medical degree).
When a company fills a position and holds a person out to be an expert and boasts about credentials and education, it’s a PR nightmare to find out they don’t have the actual degree or it’s a degree from a diploma mill.