Tick tick tick... Ka-BOOM.

http://www.gao.gov/daybook/030121.htm

Debarred attorneys running a mill, with over 100 "customers" in positions of trust or responsibility. Any bets on the "ripple effect?"

 

In all probability, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

 

Lexington U.

Phenomenal. When you think about it, there are so many operations like this cropping up everywhere, their unethical "customers" could at some point outnumber legitimate college graduates.

 

I love it! The investigators purchased the "premium package." I wonder if undercoating came with that?

Not that an employer would check--otherwise, how would diploma mills stay in business?--but wouldn't it be suspicious if the address on the transcript--ostensibly from 1988 when the master's degree was supposed to have been awarded--was the same as the customer's current one? Especially if her employment history reflected moves! Of course, any employer dumb enough to fall for this scam probably wouldn't noodle through that.

I hope this gets some traction with the federal government. Also, I wonder (not my original thought, but another poster's idea) what it might mean to the borderline schools like Berne which are clearly not comparable to accredited schools but somehow get listed to participate in financial aid and GI Bill programs? Will someone finally take a look at them? Rushmore could become another one someday, now that it's "located" in another country. And I now know MIGS was set up for that purpose; it just didn't get there.

"There's a sucker born every minute."
-- P. T. Barnum

Yeah, and he's interviewing candidates for jobs.

 

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to the percentage of human resource professionals who are aware of this sort of thing? (Let alone the magnitude of the scams available.)

 

As soon as Rich is given the high five on his Union dissertation, we should have some of this type information.

 

My own transcripts don't list addresses. However, I
would expect most transcripts to be computer generated,
and if there is any address at all, and it was requested recently,
to bear the current address of the scholar.

 

If I Only Had a Brain.

 

A great article and I hope the the federal government pays more attention to this matter. I will be most interested to see if there is any action that starts to take place..

John

 

Transcript guide on
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03269r.pdf
states that Lexington University is an accredited member of SACS

 

SACS

They are, Man!

Southwestern
Association of
Credible-less
Schools

 

Yes some HR Professionals know

I used to be a telecom technical recruiter and I would investigate universities and degrees when presenting candidates to clients. I remember the first candidate I ran across that made me start checking all academic credentials. This one guy said he had a MBA with a concentration in telecommunications. I remember thinking that odd and even more so was odd the name of his University. It was Capital University in Road Town UK. I remember thinking.. Road Town does not sound like an old english town like Cambridge, London, Liverpool, Birmingham, etc etc so I started looking it up on Usenet and the internet. I found out he had a fake degree purchased for 250.00 needless to say I called the candidate told him that he should probably not even put that on his resume in the future and that I was pulling him from the interviews I had set up for him since he had lied.

Since then-- even when I worked for companies that I did not do the actual checking I made sure in background checks we always had each background investigator to really make sure it was a university or college that was a true school and not some made up degree mill.

 

Re: Yes some HR Professionals know

Excellent protocol. If only more HR personnel would do this there would be less proliferation of illegitimate credentials.