Is it illegal to operate a diploma mill?

How do they continue to operate? Does the FBI or any other agency currently monitor and investigate these operations? What would cause the FBI to investigate and/or shut them down?

 

Public interest, mostly. The FBI made a concentrated effort to shut down many of them during the 1980's. But with the retirement of their one-man task force, the emphasis is gone.

Blatant operations, like Columbia State and La Salle, will continue to run the risk. But many, many others continue to advertise, engage customers, and issue fake degrees. Two methods of late seem to provide protection. One, the diploma mills are very honest about what they are and are not. They essentially provide an alibi service. They "award" (sell) the customer a degree, then agree to stick around and respond if someone requests verification of that "degree." They say they award degrees based upon life experience, and they do. Little that is fraudulent about that. Academically dubious, sure. But probably not enough to attract the Feds.

Two, many diploma mills now operate beyond the reach of the FBI, using the internet to reach out to potential customers. Mastercard and Visa are in a better position to stop this crap than the FBI.

Rich Douglas

 

The decentralized nature of US education and of the Internet are also factors.

A year or two ago, I forwarded a complaint about Washington International University (at that time using a Bryn Mawr, PA address) to the Pennsylvania Attorney General. I received a reply that boiled down to "we investigate complaints from Pennsylvania residents."

And what of an entity with a mailing address in Dublin and web pages hosted on a site registered to an entity with a mailing address in California? Who has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute?

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Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com