I found a site that looks real, but I'm not sure. This group says it represents various schools across the country, to provide people with a degree based on life experience, military service, past academic credits, and other similar aspects which are typically found in most schools. They claim that the institutions are members of an accredidation body known as the United States Distance Learning Association. They further claim they can offer approval between countries, and general approval anywhere in the U.S. They claim to offer real degrees in every available feild they list - instead of phony degrees. This information is all on their main page. Anyone have any feedback - preferably any of you educators out there with experience "sniffing out" these kinds of groups? Thanks.
Quick Modification: They claim that the institutions are members of an accredidation body known as the United States Distance Learning Association. They claim they can offer approval between countries (using a nation's respective Embassy), and granting general international approval anywhere through something known as the Hague Convention, using a process called a Apostille? Not quite sure I understand that. (All of the details of this information as they describe it can be found on the site). They don't claim to be a degree mill, thats what I find so interesting. Thanks.
first off, they have hidden there domain information, this to me is always a clue that something is up. Secondly, the have no phone number, and they prefer you not call them. They also talk about how a accreditation is not a requirement. This is usually a sign of millish behavior. Something else I find interesting is that they safety paper for the transcript is from San Francisco State University. Why would they need these people's help?
Re: Re: CustomDegrees.com Not a recognized accreditor. Degrees mills always tell a better story than real schools. The too good to be true part is how you often tell them apart.
You would be better off buying a good quality printer and printing your own instead of using them. First off the United States Distance Learning Association is just that an association of people and organizations interested in distance learning. Anyone (even you) can become a member and membeship means even less than AAA membership does. This is the protypical Diploma Mill with all the bells and whistles (even offers Apostille (do a search on this site for Apostille)). Best term is scam. Nice looking website though.
Run Away!!! Let's see....the word "graduate" is spelled "graduage" on the diploma; you can select your own GPA (certainly a feature of most accredited universities); you can't call this university; no physical location is indicated anywhere; diplomas "start" at $199, and best of all franchises are available. You know, I never thought about it, but when I graduated the California State University or University of California never offered me a franchise! I should have ordered a higher GPA. I am going to save up about 400 million dollars and see if I can't buy a UC franchise--I think in San Diego--I'll call it UCSD. No, seriosly this place is a raving DIPLOMA MILL 100% Run--don't walk--away. This thing on a resume could be death. Blessings
I have written here several times about the Apostille scam that many fake schools use to fool the unwary. A search should find these.
Upon further research, they also claim that the diploma comes directly from the school in question, (they are just "middlemen" apparently), this site is not a university as such. Transcripts are said to be valid and held on record with the respective real university, and so forth. I found this info through the site's FAQ page. Is there as much evidence that it could be real, as there could be that it is not real? How does one know the difference, when many schools offer life experience credit, military service credit, and other options? While I am interested in finding ways to make shortcuts in my educational pursuits, I want to make sure everything is above board. Thanks. P.S.: Dr. Bear, what do you think? You've been at this a long time. Any thoughts?
From their web site at: http://www.custom-degrees.com/apostille.php Good move, since sending them back-and-forth via the U.S. Mail would qualify them for a criminal mail fraud charge -- a particularly nasty federal felony which I would not wish upon my worst enemy. Ain't nothin' quite like responding to a knock at your front door some morning, and opening it only to find two or three armed, uniformed officials from the U.S. Postal Inspector's Office (backed-up by a couple of plain-clothed, monster-sized body-builder-types from the U.S. Marshall's office) holding a federal arrest warrant in one hand and twirling a pair of handcuffs around the index finger of the other, and asking you if you're the person whom you later learn is named on the aforementioned warrant. Now, that will certainly slam your a__hole shut in a hurry! Apostille, schmopostille. Don't believe a word of it. And warn everyone you know.
A real apostile by the Secretary of State costs about $3. I know it because I recently got my degrees from the States validated here in Holland and prior to that they required me to have the original diploma notarized by the Secretary of State as estipulated by The Hague Convention. This is certainly a scam. It is unbelivable how they play with other people's ignorance. Cordial greetings.
How can you know its not real? 1. Real schools don't have brokers who don't reveal the school's identity. 2. Real degrees don't cost $199 EVER 3. No real entity advertises degree delivery in less than thirty days EVER 4. Real schools don't engage agents that offer franchises to students along with the diploma. 5. Imagine talking to an employer who pulls up your school on the internet--wait! the school itself is not on the internet or in any listing of real schools on earth. Why? Because it does not exist on earth! Instead, the employer looks up the educational agency that brokered the degree. The employer learns that your degree came by Fed Ex from some island in an ocean no one has ever heard of. You got it in less that thirty days for less than two hundred dollars. But you paid six hundred dollars for a meaningless rubber stamp from a government office of a country that won't exist long enough to ever get on a map. The stamp says the document is the document and not a copy of the document. So the employer calls the verification service--which is not the school, becaus ethe school has no location or phone number--and learns that you graduated, but they can't tell the employer anything about you or the school except the name. To me this looks hard to explain. There is often some degree of debate about the potential quality of a schoolhere---good school, bad school, unaccredited or state aproved, token work or real work. There is no debate in this case; this is a degree mill pure and plain and simple--not a substandard, questionable, or debatable school (or rather higher educational agency--even worse than a bad school). This is the kind of degree that lands people in the unemployment line, in disgrace, and sometimes in prison.
Why would it be Mail Fraud? Title 18 USC Section 1341 covers mail fraud. If one uses the mail as part of a criminal act or scheme then, he or she can be charged with mail fraud. You can go to prison for 5 years. The letter or parcel doesn't have to be criminal in itself, but a necessary part to complete the fraud scheme. I am not a lawyer, so I don't know if they are violating any law by gaining a profit from the use of the apostille. To me, it is like all these books you can buy that list federal jobs, when the same information is free at the library or on the internet. Maybe some of the lawyers can help.
